


Origin

by eyrk



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, very slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 08:49:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 26,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1892751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyrk/pseuds/eyrk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity becomes the Hood. Oliver remains the spoiled rich guy. Their paths cross more than once. AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

 

            Felicity gasps for air as she rises from the water. Her lungs burn as she coughs and kicks her legs to stay above the lake. Scraps of metal scrape the back of her legs, tearing her jeans but she’s too busy struggling to breathe to cry out in pain.

            “Charlie,” she gasps, swallowing water.  She sees a car door floating past her, caught on fire. 

            She’s pulled under and she takes one deep breath before her head sinks below the water. The cold strikes her and Felicity wonders if she should just let go. Drowning would be painful, but afterwards, there would be peace and darkness. She wouldn’t see the dark blue water polluted with melting metal and the shadowy lights of fire scattered about from the explosion, still burning away.

            Then she sees the eyes of her social worker, open and unmoving, as she sinks to the bottom of the lake, her legs stuck in the twisted steering wheel and dashboard, her torso strapped to the burnt leather seat. Panic rises within her again and Felicity kicks her legs forcefully until she makes her way to the top.

            She has to save her little brother. After that – she’ll let the water overtake her for good.

            Felicity pants, her lungs struggling to take in more air as she spits out water and oil. 

            “Charlie! Please. Where are you?” 

            Then with the help of the light from the full moon, she sees a small body floating about five feet away. He’s on his stomach with his face in the water. She swims towards him, each stroke burning her muscles. She grabs him and turns him over with great effort.

            “No, no, no, no,” she whispers. She and her brother bob upwards as a current runs underneath them and when another piece of metal slices her side, she loses her grip on him. Felicity gasps as she clutches onto that ridiculously oversized heavy metal band T-shirt, a hand-me down from a foster brother that he had admired, and that she had made fun of him for that very morning.

            She manages to see his face and she whimpers, putting her ear against his chest.

            “Charlie!” she cries.

            He’s only twelve. How can a twelve year old leave her like this? Her eyes close and her breathing slows.

            She lets go.

 

 

            Her next foster parents are sweet to her and give her the space that she needs to grieve the loss of her brother.

            When her mother shows up one night drunk, screaming and crying for her son, her foster mother, Karen, calls a social worker. After much cajoling, the social worker gets her mother to leave and Felicity sits in the dark at the kitchen table, hearing the hushed whispers exchanged by Karen and the worker.

            She doesn’t look up when she hears footsteps and the freezer door opening.  There’s a thud and she lifts her eyes up slightly to see a tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream sitting in front of her. Karen takes a seat across from her and brandishes two spoons.

            “I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I eat my feelings,” she says.

            Felicity stuffs her face as the tears finally come pouring out.

 

 

            Eddie Raymond, a boy from her Advanced Trigonometry class, teaches her how to fight after she gets beat up by three girls in the lunchroom cafeteria. Karen and Brian ground her for a month, shooting her the disappointed look that she absolutely hates, but Eddie always finds a way. He climbs up the massive tree and then leaps from one of the branches to climb in through her bedroom window.

            They muffle their giggles as Eddie shows her the moves he’s practiced over the years as a pickpocket in the streets of Vegas. Apparently he’s had to fight off competitors and other riffraff so many times that he could do kicks and fancy punches in his sleep.

            Felicity trips on her rug and lands on her back. Then she smiles at the boy who’s looking down at her as if she’s the most beautiful girl in the world. She lets him kiss her and her body suddenly feels so alive as the tingles take over. For the first time in two years, she’s thankful that the police drew her out of the water that night.

 

 

            A large envelope from MIT is waiting for her when she gets back from school. Brian cooks his famous pasta bake – her favorite and she pretends not to notice him blinking away his tears. Karen pulls her into a tight embrace and kisses the top of her head.

            “We’re so proud of you,” she says.

            Brian hands Felicity a plate brimming with pasta bake, his smile getting wider by the second.  

            “No matter what,” he says.

            She doesn’t think she’s had a more delicious meal in her life.

 

 

            Eddie got into Harvard but his folks have no money to send him there. He shrugs when she hands him the list of all the scholarships she found online. He takes it but she knows he won’t do anything about it. She can’t help but cry when Eddie tells her over the phone that he found a job at his uncle’s garage.

            He doesn’t come to graduation and she tries her best to plaster on a smile when Brian snaps a picture of her in her cap and gown.

 

 

            Karen calls to tell her that she has cancer.  Felicity catches the next flight to Vegas and she bursts into their home with tears in her eyes. Her foster mother yells at her when she finds out that her daughter skipped her first mid-term of her college career to come to Vegas.

            “Shut up, Karen,” says her mild-mannered foster father from his armchair. He pushes his round glasses up on the bridge of his nose as he looks at his wife. Felicity notices the fog in the lenses. “She just wants to be there for you.”

            Karen laughs and takes the glasses off his face to wipe them with her shirt as Felicity goes to the kitchen to scoop out enough ice cream to fill three bowls.

 

            Brian calls Felicity one week before finals to tell her that Karen’s gone.

 

 

            Brian discovers alcohol in a whole new way after the funeral. His weekly calls stop and Felicity hesitates a few seconds before texting him about her day. Then she comes home for spring break and she finds a new family living there.

            Felicity just stands on the front steps, staring at the young mother in front of her who has her baby perched on her hip. The woman smiles at her shyly and apologizes for the fact that she doesn’t know where her landlord went. Her son coos and she bends her head down to kiss him.

            When she looks up, Felicity is long gone.

 

 

            Felicity trembles when she finishes reading an article in the Daily Planet. Lois Lane, an investigative journalist, claims that she found a connection between four car explosions that happened throughout the country within the past couple of years. Each victim has been connected to Robert Queen, CEO of Queen Consolidated. Queen seemed to have made many enemies during his rise in the business world and Lane theorizes that he gets rid of them by hiring out contract killers. Unfortunately, the journalist wasn’t able to reach the billionaire for a comment.

 

 

 

            “The fuck?” Babs says when she enters their dorm to find a web of newspaper stories pinned on the wall on Felicity’s side of the room. She eases herself onto her bed in a daze as her roommate explains what she’s found. After thirty minutes of this, Babs tucks strands of red wavy hair behind her ear.

            “You think he killed Charlie?” she asks.

            Felicity sinks to the ground. “I don’t know.”

            Babs sits down next to her and puts her arm around her friend’s shoulders. “So go and find out.”

 

 

            Felicity reports to the IT department on her first day of work along with half a dozen others. Alec, who has worked at Queen Consolidated for at least two years, hands them their badges and folders filled with brightly colored packets. He gives them an extensive tour of the building as part of their orientation.

            Alec stumbles over his words when he catches sight of Robert Queen and his associates walking in the hallway and greets him. Robert Queen only gives the group a curt nod before continuing his private conversation. Her eyes follow his retreating back as he steps onto the elevator.

            When he turns around, he catches her gaze. She sees him frown at her as the elevator doors close.

 

 

            Daniel Cooper, the head of the IT department, is on the phone when Alec brings the group to his office to finish off the tour. Cooper grimaces and Felicity can hear harsh tones over the phone. Alec begins to shoo the group back out but Cooper slams his phone down on his desk.

            “Whoever fixes Mr. Walter Steele’s laptop in the next fifteen minutes gets an early Christmas bonus,” he says staring out at the newbies.

            Felicity raises her hand. He arches his eyebrow and she swallows as her gaze is drawn to his piercing blue eyes.

            “Yes?”

            “What if I’m Jewish?” she asks, thinking back to Karen lighting the menorah in the winter each year. Cooper smirks, his eyes glinting in amusement.

            “Then we’ll make it a Hanukkah bonus.”

            Felicity uses the money to help pay for her new Mini Cooper. She swears to herself that she purchased it for the excellent gas mileage and not for the name.

 

 

            When a motorcycle crashes into her Mini Cooper, she curses as she steps out of the car. The man gets up from the ground and brushes the dirt off his jeans. Then he flashes a smile at her. Felicity can actually see him gearing up for the charm as he runs his hand through his short hair.

            “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. Are you okay?” he asks, his eyes full of concern. Something about him makes her suspect that he knows how to talk his way out of trouble.

            She says nothing and only bends slightly to survey the damage on her bumper. When she gets up, Felicity sees his eyes shoot up to her face and she frowns at the thought of him enjoying the view of her ass.

            “Listen, I’ll pay for the damages. Just let me know where I can send the check,” he says. Then he continues, “My name is Oliver Queen.”

            He waits for a reaction that he’s used to but she only turns to examine the scratches on her baby. Her heart twinges though at the surname but she ignores the ache. Oliver Queen clears his throat.

            “Maybe you’re new in town, but my father is Robert Queen. You know, from Queen Consolidated?”

            Felicity slowly turns around to glare at him. He rubs his stubble slightly as he steps back.

            “I’m just saying, I’m good for the money.”

            She turns on her heels again and gets back into the car. As she drives away, Felicity watches him gape at her through the rearview mirror. A small grin spreads across her lips as he becomes a tiny figure in the distance.

 

 

            “Felicity!” Cooper barks from his office.

            Her co-workers poke their heads up from their cubicles giving her a distinct impression of prairie dogs.  Felicity calmly gets up from her chair and walks down the aisle between the rows of cubicles with her head held up high. She knocks and then enters the office.

            Cooper leans back in his chair and searches her expression carefully.

            “I asked you to update our systems,” he says rolling up the sleeves of his blue dress shirt before crossing his arms.  She takes care to not look at his veiny wrists and muscled forearms.

            “Yes, you did,” she says, biting her bottom lip.

            He frowns. “You didn’t just update them, you completely _changed_ them without my permission.”

            Cooper must have put some gel in his dark hair, because he looks dashingly windswept. Alec barges in with his mouth opened, ready to say something but pauses awkwardly when he sees the tension in the room. Under Cooper’s withering glare, her co-worker and now friend backs out of the room.

            “But the program works better. It’s more user-friendly,” she replies.

            “I understand that but you can’t just do something like that without telling me, Felicity,” he says, rubbing his eyes. “I’m accountable for you and everyone else in the IT department.”

            “I’m sorry, I was just working on it at home while watching Breaking Bad and then I got creative,” Felicity says, looking down at her feet. She looks back up when her supervisor chuckles.

            “Jesus. Only you,” he says. Before she can smile at him, he speaks again. “Now you have to lead an orientation for everyone on this new system of yours to catch them up.”

            “What?” she sputters.

            “That’s what happens when you play lone wolf. Show me that you’re a team player, and _then_ we can talk about a raise,” he says. He waves his hand in dismissal and looks at his computer screen. Felicity frowns.

            “But I never said anything about a raise,” she says.

            He grins but doesn’t look away from his screen. “I know you didn’t. Now get the hell out of here and do some work.”

 

 

            Seven months later, Babs shows up at her apartment in Starling City, shot in the shoulder. Even through the Bat costume, she recognizes the red haired woman straight away and brings her inside, panting heavily from the dead weight.

            “Hell no. You’re not leaving me,” she mutters as she moves her former roommate to the couch. Felicity scrambles to her bathroom, pulling out all sorts of supplies from the medicine cabinet. She has no idea what to do and she wants to vomit when she sees the blood seeping out from the wound.

            Luckily, Babs is still conscious and she walks her through the stitching up process. After tying a tight knot, she snips the thread, and Babs falls asleep. Throughout the night, Felicity checks to see if she’s still breathing every so often. When she wakes up as the sun peeks out from the clouds, its rays reaching the living room, Felicity glares down at her.

            “What the hell are you up to?” she asks.

            “What, you didn’t hear about Batgirl on the news? Damn it, I swear, Batman gets most of the coverage. It’s not fair,” the woman complains with a pout.

            “Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Felicity shouts, her hands on her hips. The fact that she still has blood on her shirt terrifies her to no end. She’s so sick of death that she wants to strangle her best friend, which makes no sense at all – but still.

            Babs blinks. “Um, no?”

 

 

            Felicity sits down in a booth at Big Belly Burger, feeling the tension running out of her body. She, Daniel, and Alec were in a three hour meeting from hell and the only saving grace was Walter Steele’s gentle smile while she stammered in front of the other department heads. A waitress comes and takes her order with a smile without shelling out any judgment over the fact that Felicity is eating alone.

            Over the top of the booth, she spies Oliver Queen entering the restaurant with his arm slung over a woman’s shoulder. Another man follows behind them. They pick a booth across from hers and she looks back at the surface of her table to play with the napkin.

            “Hey, maybe we should call Sara. She’s probably free,” the pretty brunette comments as she scrolls through her phone. Felicity peeks from the corner of her eyes and sees Queen and the other man exchange glances at each other.

            Queen tucks a finger under the woman’s chin, smiles at her and then kisses her softly. When he pulls away, the woman raises an eyebrow.

            “Everything okay, Ollie?” she asks.

            “Yeah, it’s just – the three of us haven’t hung out in a long time. It’ll be like old times,” he says after taking a sip of water.

            “Hmm,” she replies.

            Carly, the waitress, comes back with Felicity’s food. She sets the plate down in front of her. The sudden movement draws attention to her table and she can feel Queen’s eyes on her when Carly walks away, leaving her in plain sight.

            Felicity digs in and hears the woman murmur, “Someone you know?”

            There’s a pause.

            “Nah, just some weird girl I ran my bike into awhile back,” Queen answers.

 

 

            The men attack her from both sides and she has no choice but to back up into a wall. One of the men grabs her by the throat and knees her in the gut. The pain bursts and black edges in from the sides of her vision as she draws in a raspy breath, which gets squeezed back out when he tightens his grip on her neck.

            “We know you’re hiding him. Where is he?” the man asks as Felicity claws away at his rough hands. When he loosens, she coughs twice. The first time is for her to catch her breath. The second cough is a distraction as she kicks him the stomach with her heels. As soon as he doubles over, Felicity jabs her elbow at the other man’s throat.

            She positions herself to sprint but the first man grabs a fistful of her hair. She can’t help but let out a cry of pain as she’s pulled back and slammed into the wall.

            “Where the fuck is Ed Raymond?” he snarls in her face.

            She pauses for a second and then slaps his face, ignoring the sharp sting pulsing through her palm afterwards. He looks stunned as she is at her action. But hell, she’s going to go with it.

            “How the hell would I know?” she growls before throwing a right hook, which lands perfectly on his bulging eye.

            A rush of black swoops down and tackles both men down to ground. The sounds of bones cracking make her wince and she leans down to try to pull Babs back before she goes too far.

            “Um, Bab-Batgirl. I think you’re good. Hey. Hey!” Felicity yells while reaching down to the fray to yank her friend back from the moaning pile of men. Babs huffs as she flings her red hair off from her neck to let the sweat cool. Then she turns to face Felicity with a glint in her eye.

            “You didn’t tell me you could fight.”

            Felicity shakes out her hand and winces.

            “Only what Eddie taught me,” she murmurs as she looks down at them. “Speaking of…what were you two saying about my friend again?”

            She bares some teeth to show them she’s not goofing around.

 

 

            Turns out Eddie’s uncle was running a chop shop, which was his gateway to a life of misdemeanors and other run ins with the law. As she follows his tracks through his financial and criminal history, her throat clogs. This boy was meant to be in Harvard and getting himself through law school.

            Then she finds two years of silence. She can’t find any proof of residence, any evidence of money flowing in and out of his bank account, or anything that showed her that he was alive during that time. Then he just pops back onto the grid again as if everything’s back to normal. Except this time around, there are no scrapes with the cops.

            Then she blinks when a box pings up onto her screen.

            “No,” Felicity whispers, clicking through furiously.

            His current address puts him smack dab in the middle of the Glades.

 

 

            Dogs bark and run along the fence, their wet noses sticking out through the gaps. Their owner clicks his tongue and they come running back to lick the slab of meat in a large bowl. He notices Felicity loitering and glares at her.

            “What do you want, lady?” he asks as he moves toward his back door with heavy steps. She puts her hand on the fence, a few inches away from the black and orange “beware of dogs” sign.

            “Does an Ed Raymond live here?” she asks, glancing warily at the dog growling at the other for taking a bite out of the meat. The man puts a cigarette to his mouth and lights it.

            “There’s no one by that name here,” he says. He hacks and then spits. She narrows her eyes. He doesn’t have a tight grasp on the cigarette and she can see the slight tremble.

            “Are you sure?” Felicity says, curling her fingers around the metal wire.

            The man harrumphs and turns his back to open the door.

            “If you do see him, could you tell him that Felicity Smoak is looking for him?” she calls out as the door creaks open. The man pulls his bathrobe tighter around him as his shoulders tense.

            The door slams shut and the noise causes the dogs to howl.

 

 

            She stakes out the small house, a few feet away from the fence, until about three in the morning. The barking has slowed to a stop and all Felicity can hear are the summer crickets, the next door neighbor’s jazz music on the radio, and muffled fighting from the other neighbor’s place. She leans back in her seat and sighs before scooting up to get her engine going again.

            Then she sees a tall man in a black leather jacket with a hood attached to it walk up to the fence. Felicity crouches down when he pauses to look at her car.

            “Damn it,” she hisses, cursing her conspicuous blue Mini Cooper.

            After a few seconds, she decides to brave it and peeks over her dashboard. The man has already turned on his heels and he’s walking away in the dark. Then he gets into another car that he parked a few yards away and drives off.

            Fumbling with the keys, she finally gets the car to rumble into life and slowly drives out of her space. Her back aches from her slouching down in her seat so low but her hands are gripped tight onto the wheel.

            “Come on, Eddie,” she whispers as she follows him all the way to a warehouse.

 

 

            When she sees the words “Queen Industrial Inc. Steel Fabrication and Welding” hanging high up on the building, she closes her eyes. They fly right back open when someone opens her door and grabs her by the arm.

            “The fu – hey!” she yells as she struggles with the man. He hisses when she manages to scratch his face but pulls her out of the car anyway. When she’s pushed against the side of her Mini, she gasps as she looks into the face of the man with a hood.

            He draws in a sharp breath as the chaos in his eyes intensifies. Felicity cautiously reaches out and starts to pull his hood down. He grabs onto her wrist before she can.

            “Wait,” he rasps out.

            “No,” she says.

            The hood falls back onto his shoulders and she sees the scarring on the right side of his face. His dark hair ruffles in the wind and she can’t help but grin at his long nose that’s broken in all the right places. Felicity runs her hand against his stubble as he parts his lips.

            Then she slaps him and he turns his face slightly at the force.

            “What the hell is the matter with you?” she whispers. Then her voice starts rising as she lists all his charges and arrests. “That’s nine misdemeanors, you idiot!”

            He groans. “Would you, for the love of God, shut up?”

            He kisses her and she’s once again the most beautiful woman in the world.

 

 

            “You’re a hired sniper and you use the property of my employer as your base?” Felicity asks, staring at his equipment when they finally enter the Foundry. He whips his head around to look at her. “They didn’t let me into MIT because I was pretty. You have a freaking sniper’s rifle out in the open. I know that this place is deserted but someone from Queen Consolidated might wander in.”

            Eddie sighs and places his hand on the side of her face.

            “You shouldn’t be here. This wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” he whispers. She leans into his touch.

            “How was it supposed to happen?” she asks.

            He lets go of her.

            “It wasn’t supposed to happen at all.”

            “Who are you going to kill, Eddie?” she demands.

            He doesn’t answer.

 

 

            She knows that she should yell at him for the life he’s leading – convince him to stop, but she’s so tired. Felicity is starting to remember again what it’s like to be embraced.

 

 

            His naked body turns rigid when she tells him about the two men. His arms tighten around her and she shifts so that she’s facing him. After she traces the scars on his chest, she pulls her sheets up to cover them both.

            “It’s fine, Eddie. I just – what happened? Why are they looking for you?”

            He doesn’t answer and gets out of bed to pull on his boxers and pants. She sits up with her sheets around her, her heart sinking. Then Felicity yelps when the zipper of a black hoodie nearly hits her in the face when Eddie throws it at her. Her underwear and shorts land on top of her as well.

            “I can’t teach you how to fight if I’m distracted,” he says. He rolls his shoulders back causing his broad torso to stretch out. She reaches down to grab his shirt and tosses it to him.

            “Just pay me the same courtesy.”

            Then she learns how to fight and it’s way different from when she beat up those three girls back in high school.

 

 

            Cooper grabs her elbow when he sees her dashing through the lobby of Queen Consolidated, her nose almost buried in her purse as she looks for her phone. She looks up, confused, and then opens her mouth when she meets Cooper’s eyes.

            “Daniel! So sorry I’m late, I just – my alarm – and…where are we going?” she asks when he leads her back out of the building.

            “Three hours,” he says as he pulls her out of harm’s way when a bike messenger swerves. Felicity blows the hair out of her eyes as she glances at him.

            “What?” she says.

            “You’re three hours late,” he says before he lets out a sharp whistle at the corner of Second and Johnson.

            “My alarm…” Felicity trails off as a taxi slides up right by the curb. “You didn’t answer my question. Where are we going?”

            His phone rings sharply from the front pocket of his suit. He scowls as he pats down his pocket and then pulls his phone out. Without even a glance at the screen, Cooper silences it.

            “We’re going for an early lunch before I murder Robert Queen,” he huffs. He gets into the backseat and then looks up at her as she blinks. “Well? I’ll take you to that new restaurant, Table Salt.”

            Felicity slides in next to him. “Are you okay?”

            He doesn’t answer the question and only glowers. “Mr. Queen will be footing the bill so you better eat up.”

            “Does this mean red wine?” she asks.

            “Only the very best for you, Felicity,” Cooper says as he cracks a small grin.

 

 

            The bullet slams through the back window and zooms out through the windshield missing Eddie by three inches. Felicity gasps as he pushes her head down so that she’s almost folded over in half over her lap. She trembles as she clutches the edge of the passenger seat of his car.

            “Eddie,” she says, her voice shaking, as she peeks out her window. They pass by the grocery store that they left her apartment for.  The car swerves as Eddie curses.  Her stomach lurches as he yanks the stick so that the car is in reverse and presses on the accelerator. Loud, angry honks overwhelm her senses until he jerks the wheel so that the back of the car ends up in another street. Eddie pulls the stick down and then spins the car so that it’s facing forward.

            “Damn it,” he says as he slams down on the accelerator, weaving through the traffic. Another bullet hits the back and she can hear it travel through the upholstery of the trunk. “I was too careless. Felicity, listen to me.”

            She looks over her shoulder in a panic but tears her eyes away when Eddie grabs her arm roughly. The resignation in his eyes scares her far more than the attacking bullets.

            “I’m not going to survive this. I’ll get you far away as I can but – you have to know something.”

            “Eddie, no,” she cries as he takes a quick left. “Eddie, just shut up and –”

            “Felicity! It has to do with Charlie. He – Robert Queen –”

            His head suddenly drops forward with a thud onto the wheel. Felicity chokes as she looks at the blood and bits splattered across the windshield. She reaches for him as she breathes heavily.

            “Eddie, oh God,” she whispers.

            The car continues to move, however, and Felicity grabs onto the wheel, trying very hard not to touch her childhood friend.

            When she sees the only body of water in Starling City looming ahead, she roars in frustration and anguish.

            “Fuck! Fuck you, fuck!” she screams, hitting her fist on the dashboard. Then as the lake gets closer, she opens the passenger door and tumbles out. Her shoulders jar as she bounces onto the pavement and she crawls out of the way of a honking semi trailer. When the trailer whips by, Felicity sees the top of the car bobbing just above the water.

            Then Lake Starling embraces the car completely and she can only see the sunrays glistening on the surface.

 

 

            She walks into Queen Consolidated that night with one of Eddie’s guns tucked behind the back of her tight jeans. She pulls at the white jacket so that the gun doesn’t show as Felicity smiles at one of the security guards.

            “Sorry, I forgot one of my files. My boss is going to kill me if I don’t get this done by tomorrow morning.”

            He nods and gives her a sympathetic smile. She steps into the elevator and she stares down at her hands. There’s still a bit of blood that she missed behind her nails. The elevator glides up silently all the way to the top floor. With a ding, the doors open.

            Felicity steps out to see the executive assistant’s desk empty and she catches a glimpse of Robert Queen through the glass. His head is in his hands and then with a sigh he lifts it. She slides out from his view quietly.

            Then when she looks again, he’s taking a sip of his scotch as he looks down at the city through his window. It’d be easy enough to sneak in and stick the barrel of the gun behind his head.

            Felicity steps forward when a hand claps on her sore shoulder. She freezes when Cooper comes around to face her from the front with a frown.

            “What are you doing up here?” he whispers, glancing over his shoulder at the CEO. Then he looks closely at her face and concern settles into his piercing eyes. “Are you okay?” 

            Felicity just closes her eyes and turns her back. She takes the elevator back down to the lobby. When the security guard arches his eyebrow, she smiles sheepishly.

            “I realized I had it in my car this whole time. Silly me.”

 

 

            She throws up in her bathroom when she realizes that she almost became a murderer.

 

 

            Felicity takes a personal day and drives around the city with no destination in mind. Then she takes a deep breath before driving by the lake, expecting to see cop cars and a crane at the scene. But there’s nothing but drivers going about their normal lives as they travel over the bridge.

            She doesn’t stop and keeps going even as the tears spill onto her lap. As her car comes to a stop at the stoplight, she sees a motorcycle parked in front of a boutique. Her eyes narrow as she recognizes the license plate and her nostrils flare.

            When the light turns green, Felicity slams on the gas and rams her car into the motorcycle. Then she puts the car in reverse and then back into drive so that she can do it again. She enjoys the feeling of crushed metal but she finds herself catching for breath as she drives the car back out again. Pedestrians yell as they get out of the way of flying parts but she ignores their stares and the honking.

            She’s close to hyperventilating when Oliver Queen comes running out from the store with a blonde girl following close behind. He waves his hands out.

            “What the fu –” he starts to yell. Then he stops when their eyes meet through the windshield. He opens his mouth and then closes it again.

            Tears stream down her face as she puts the car into drive and then presses down on the pedal. She hits his bike one more time and one of the wheels rolls past by Queen as he stares at her.

            Then her car squeals away.

 

 

            Felicity comes into work earlier than anyone else the next morning. She gets her reports done at a steady pace before her colleagues trickle into the office. Then Cooper strides in with his briefcase and he glances at her over the top of her cubicle.

            “We need to talk. My office. _Now_.”

            He walks past her and slams his office door shut. Felicity swallows and logs off her computer as Alec peeks his head over her workspace.

            “What did you do now?” he asks, his eyebrow raised.

            She ignores him as she walks to Cooper’s office. She doesn’t bother to knock and just enters. He stares at her as he stands behind his desk. Then he reaches down to grab a bag and puts it down on the surface of his desk.

            He looks at her again, leaning his weight on his two hands that are resting on either side of the rectangular bag.

            “What were you doing up there?” Cooper asks, his voice tight.

            Felicity steps back.

            “No, what the hell were you doing in the building at that time of night?” he says, his eyes narrowing.

            She licks her bottom lip. “What were _you_ doing there then?”

            “ _No_. I don’t want any bullshit, Felicity. Give it to me straight.”

            She wraps her arms around herself and looks down at the floor. “I forgot my tablet at the office so I went in to grab it. Then I saw him getting on the elevator and I just – got curious. Plus, you were steaming over him that other day and I just wanted to…spy…on him.”

            She looks up to see him stare at her.

            “I know! It was stupid. You scared the crap out of me when you caught me sneaking.”

            “Are you shitting me, Smoak?” he says.

            Felicity blinks. “Um, no?”

            After a few moments, Cooper sighs and runs his hand through his hair. Then he unzips the bag and pulls out a company laptop. He gestures down at it.

            “Guess what this is.”

            Felicity blinks again. “A lap…top?”

            Cooper gives her a chilly grin as he gestures at it again.

            “And whose laptop do you think it is?”

            Her chest twinges as she feels a sudden invisible weight drop down on her shoulders.

            “Robert Queen’s?”

            “It crashed. He wants it exactly the way it was and he wants it back within 24 hours. And _then,_ when it’s all fixed, he wants _you_ to bring it up to him,” he says as he crosses his arm over his chest.

            “What?” she whispers.

            “He saw you, Felicity. Guess you weren’t as sneaky as you thought.”

 

 

            When Cooper sees her hammering away on Robert Queen’s laptop as he’s about to leave work for home, he pauses to look around at the dimmed lights and empty cubicles. Then he sighs and pulls up a chair beside Felicity.

            She looks at him in confusion as he takes out his phone and starts dialing.

            “I’m ordering Chinese. What do you want?”

            She smiles. “General Tso’s chicken, please.”

 

 

            Felicity takes a deep breath before she steps out of the elevator with a fixed laptop tucked in one arm. She adjusts her favorite grey dress and then fiddles with her glasses. The executive assistant looks up from her magazine and then poises her finger above a button on the intercom.

            “Name?” she asks as she flips a page.

            “Felicity Smoak.”

            “Do you have an appointment?” she asks.

            “Um, yes. Sort of. I’m from IT. I have his laptop.”

            The EA pushes the button and it buzzes.

            “Felicity Smoak for you, sir,” she says in a smooth calming voice.

            “Let her in,” a deep voice rumbles from the speaker.

            Felicity turns to see Robert Queen talking with his son in his office. The man cranes his neck to look at her past his son’s broad shoulders to wave her in. The younger man turns to see who he’s welcoming and his smile falters.

            She walks in with her head held up high.

            “Hello, Mr. Queen and…um, Mr. Queen.”

            “Oliver. You can just call me Oliver,” the son says with a hesitant smile. He searches her face as if he’s expecting her to fly off the handle at any moment. When she gives him nothing, he turns to his father. “Sorry, I thought we were doing lunch?”

            “Right, I’m sorry, Oliver. I need to speak with Miss Smoak here. How about you join your mother and I for lunch tomorrow?” Robert Queen says putting his hand on his shoulder.

            Oliver Queen nods. “Sounds good. Oh, by the way, Laurel will be over for dinner tonight.”

            Robert Queen raises his eyebrow. “Laurel and not Sara?”

            Oliver Queen gives his father a look. Then he turns and his arm brushes up against hers as he walks out.

 

 

            “Thank you. I trust that everything’s all in order?” Queen says when she puts the laptop on the desk in front of him. Felicity nods as she steps away from the desk.

            “Yes, it’s all fixed. Everything should be back to normal.”

            Felicity waits for him to speak but he just turns on the laptop. Then he looks up.

            “Was there anything else?” Queen asks.

            “Um, no,” she replies while rubbing her arm.

            “Then you can go, Miss Smoak.”

            As she walks out of the office, the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up and she knows that he’s staring at her the entire time.

 

 

            “Hey, wait up,” someone says as he puts a hand between the elevator doors as she’s about to go back downstairs from the top floor. Felicity backs up when Oliver Queen enters. Another employee snakes his way in as well at the same time and Queen frowns. Then he reaches forward to knock the papers out of the employee’s hands so that he has to step out to gather them up.

            The doors shut and they’re alone.

            “You trashed my bike.”

            She doesn’t reply and just presses a button. The elevator starts to move. He narrows his eyes and then crosses his arms.

            “Look, I know you did it to get back at me, but I, like, barely scratched your car! And I told you that I would pay for it. So I don’t get why –”

            “I don’t care about the car,” Felicity snaps.

            Queen stops short and then squints. “Then what the hell is your problem?”

            She remains silent and he lets out a huff.

            “You know I could press charges, right? There were a ton of eyewitnesses and I’m sure there were cameras around to catch it all in action. _I_ decided not to because you were clearly not in your right mind, but –”

            “This. This is my problem. You ride around acting as if you’re better than all of us. You make all the decisions in this city and to hell with anyone else. Other lives don’t – don’t matter to you, even if they’re precious to me,” Felicity says, the words tumbling out while her voice hitches as she thinks of Charlie and Eddie. She can’t continue and puts a hand to her temple.

            Queen steps forward in concern. “Hey, you okay?”

            She backs away and snarls, “I’m fine.”

            The elevator doors open to the largely empty lobby. Queen moves to get out but then pauses before glancing over his shoulder.

            “I’m not my father, you know,” he says quietly.

            He steps out without looking back again and the doors close.

 

 

            She ends up calling Babs as she’s curled up in her bed in the dark, clutching Eddie’s leather jacket to her chest. The tears don’t stop and she wonders when they will dry out. When Babs climbs in through the window because Felicity can’t bring herself to drag her body out of bed to answer the door, she cries harder.

            “Oh Felicity,” Babs whisper as she sits on the bed beside her. Felicity covers her face with the hood, taking in the scent of his cologne. Then she sees the blood and bits of flesh and Charlie’s pale face. She bites her lip until she draws blood as she thinks about how much she hates scum like Robert Queen.

            When the tears slow down, it’s the crack of dawn. But the anger that took root during the night is still there. Now, she just has to do something about it.

            Felicity sits up, nudging Babs awake.

            “You okay?” her friend asks groggily.

            She gets out of bed and Babs moves out of her way. “Hey, where are you going?”

            Without speaking, Felicity puts on the jacket and zips it almost all the way up. It’s baggy and huge on her, but she doesn’t care. Then she lifts the hood up over her head and the black leather weighs heavier than she thought. It acts as a curtain that’s draped over half of her vision.

            “Uh…Felicity?” Babs says.

            “I want to do what you do,” Felicity croaks as she wraps her arms around herself. “I want to be called the Hood.”

            Felicity can’t see Babs cracking a smile but she imagines it as her friend speaks.

            “You sure? Because I don’t think Batchick is taken yet.”


	2. The Middle

**Five months later**

 

 

            _She stands on top of the Queen Consolidated building and even through the heavy leather hood Felicity can hear the sharp breeze. The city beneath her feet breathes in with excitement, lights traveling through its veins as it welcomes the night’s embrace. Something about the sight makes her want to sit and watch the clouds blow over the canvas of rooftops._

_Instead, she spreads out her arms and jumps._

 

 

            “So what do you think?” Babs asks as Felicity circles around the large contraption that sits rather inconveniently in the middle of her foundry. “Batman was going to throw it away, but I convinced him to donate it to a good cause.”

            Felicity’s eyes travel up the ridges until they reach the straight bar that connects the two long strips of metal.

            “The hell am I supposed to do with _this_?” she says after a moment’s pause.

            Babs leaps to grab the metal bar and lifts herself up, moving the bar up with her with a loud clang.

            “It’s a salmon ladder,” she grunts, “You’ll need to work out your upper body.”

            When she finishes, Babs hops off and claps her hands to get rid of the rusty flakes.

            “Your turn,” she grins.

            Felicity eyes the bar.

            “I don’t even want to ask how you brought it in here without being seen,” she mutters to her friend.

            “You’re stalling,” Babs retorts, crossing her arms.

            After taking a long breath, Felicity leaps on, her fingers wrapping around the bar. She hangs there, taking a moment to feel the stretch in the back of her shoulders, but soon enough her eyes gleam.

            With a heave, she brings the bar up, the clang shaking the ladder.

            She climbs higher, and the sound of her heavy breathing fades away.

            When she gets to the very top, Felicity smiles.

            “Now, aren’t you glad I had Nightwing lug it in here?” Babs smirks.

 

 

            Cooper stares at her.

            “So, some clerk in the Applied Sciences Division is selling company secrets to other corporations?”

            Felicity sighs and shows him the code that fills up the screen of her tablet.

            “He’s not just some clerk. He’s a hacker and he’s selling them to the highest bidder.”

            Her employer rubs his face with his palms and groans. He leans back in his chair and drops his hands to look at her with tired eyes.

            “But why work at QC if he’s a hacker? Can’t he just get what he needs remotely?”

            She tilts her head and gives him a small grin.

            “Well, when you took over the IT department, you shored up the security – it got harder to get in. Plus, QC has great benefits,” Felicity replies with some pep towards the end.

            Cooper glares at her.

            “So essentially you’re saying that this is all my fault because I was just trying to do my job,” he growls.

            “Basically,” she smiles.

            He leans forward after tugging at his tie.

            “All right, I want you to backtrack everything. I want to know what was on his screens since his first day at work. Then I’ll bring it to Queen.”

            “Will do,” she answers before she turns to leave his office.

            “Hey, what are you doing this Saturday?” he calls out.

            Felicity stops and glances over her shoulder.

            “Going after a hacker, why?”

            Cooper runs his hand through his dark hair.

            “Nothing. Never mind. I need that report ASAP.”

            She scowls.

            “Daniel, what is it?”

            He sighs.

            “I need a date, alright?” Cooper says, pulling at the back of his neck.

            A smirk spreads across her face and his eyes narrow at the act.

            “Shut up. It’s the Queens’ annual holiday party. Since you wanted to spy on Robert Queen so bad, I thought I’d do you the favor of taking you with me. It’ll be at his place and you’ll get to mine all the information you want,” he says.

            She swallows as his cool blue eyes settle on hers. His lighthearted tone masks a thread of doubt in his voice. As much as Robert Queen gets on his nerves, this company is where he got started, where he built his career. Any threat to QC, she knows he doesn’t take lightly.

            Felicity flashes him a grin.

            “Oh, I see. You’re doing _me_ a favor with this date, huh?”

            Cooper shakes his head. “Just – yes or no, Smoak?”

            “Yes, I’ll go on a date with you, Daniel,” Felicity says sweetly as she turns back to go, ignoring the roll of his eyes.

 

 

            They sit in a 1999 Chevrolet Impala in silence save for the loud crack of Babs’ gum and the occasional static of the police dispatch. When a pink bubble grows from her friend’s lips, Felicity sighs and glares at her.

            “Why are we doing this?”

            The bubble pops and Babs scrapes it away with her tongue.

            “You said you wanted to do what I do. Well, this is what I do,” she replies, lifting her feet to rest on the dash.

            Felicity arches her eyebrow and Babs raises her hands.

            “Okay, so maybe I don’t stake out in a dark alleyway in a car that barely works, but it builds character. It’s how I started out before I realized there are better ways.”

            “Before Batman, you mean,” Felicity mutters, tapping on the steering wheel.

            “Hey, I do my own thing. He’s … just a sponsor, a benefactor. You know, I think you’d be good friends. You should come over to the Batcave sometime. Maybe it’ll give you redecorating ideas for your lair,” Babs says, making stick figures in the condensation on the window.

            “Stop calling it a lair,” she growls.

            “Whatever. You secretly like it.”

            In irritation, Felicity leans back in her seat.

            “This has nothing to do with Queen, Babs. We’re wasting time. I should be at home working on leads. Not that I have any. I still can’t get into his files even when I’m inside the building, using our servers. I swear that man has a fortress around him –”

            Babs glances at her.

            “What happens after?”

            Felicity furrows her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

            Babs bring her feet back down and cracks her gum once more.

            “Let’s say you take down Queen. You succeed and he’s in jail for the rest of his life. Then what?”

            She stays silent and Batgirl sighs.

            “I just want you to see the bigger picture here.”

            Felicity’s face flushes and she whips her head to snarl at her.

            “So what, you want me to go after every mugger and pickpocket in this city? Queen killed my brother, Babs. He killed Eddie. It doesn’t just end with Queen. You know there’s more than one man behind this. _I’m_ not the one who needs to see the bigger picture.”

            Babs doesn’t reply and only stares out the windshield with a frown. Still angry, Felicity follows her gaze and sees a silhouette of a man on his knees, crying, with three other men above him. Babs rolls down her window and their voices waft in along with the harsh breeze.

            “Please. I have a wife and two kids. Just give me a few more days. I promise you, I’ll have the money. Please,” the man rasps out, clutching onto the large man’s pant leg.

            The man only raises his crowbar high up in the air in response.

            Babs turns to her with a sad smile.

            “There’s more going on in this city than just your personal tragedy, Felicity,” she says softly.

            With barely a rustle, Batgirl exits, leaving her alone in the car.

            The breeze feels especially cold and Felicity shakes her head. Then she raises her hood before she joins her friend in the fight.

 

 

            Cooper stares at her when she opens the door and she looks down to check for any oddities on her blue dress. The quick motion causes her curls to fall out of place and she reaches up for her silver pin.

            “Damn it, I used a whole can of hair spray and it still won’t stay up,” Felicity mutters as she peeks at the small mirror hanging above her key hooks. “Sorry, Daniel, let me just –”

            She stops as Cooper takes the pin from her and gently puts her hair back in place. His breath falls on her bare shoulders and she tucks a few strands of hair behind her ear. After the pin clasps, Felicity turns around.

            “Thanks,” she murmurs. After a moment, she smirks. “Do you fix girls’ hair often?”

            Daniel steps back and chuckles.

            “I have three sisters. You look…beautiful,” he says softly.

            “Thank you,” she says.

            Cooper looks up at her coat hanging on a hook, grabs it, and holds it out for her so that she can slide in. Then when he presents his arm, she takes it and ignores the warm feeling pooling in her stomach as they walk out of her apartment.

 

 

 

            The Queen mansion sprawls along the street block with a long line of cars waiting to get valet service. Felicity tries to look unimpressed but it’s hard to do with all the ivy and the Christmas lights elegantly draping across the walls. Cooper opens the door for her and an orange glow and warmth emanate even from the foyer.

            “Daniel! It’s so good to see you,” a woman says.

            “Mrs. Queen, how are you?” Daniel replies, dutifully receiving a peck on the cheek.

            Felicity licks her bottom lip as she watches the wife of Robert Queen frown at Cooper. Even in her blue dress, she feels lacking as she stands close to the woman in a long, slim black gown. But it’s not the gown or the pearls or even Mrs. Queen’s perfect hair that make her feel small and uncertain – it’s the slight chill beneath her gracefully aging eyes.

            “Please. You know you can call me Moira. And you have a guest!” Mrs. Queen addresses Felicity with a warm smile. 

            “Moira, this is Felicity Smoak. She’s one of our best in the IT department. Felicity, this is Moira Queen,” Cooper introduces her.

            Felicity shakes her hand with a smile of her own.

            “It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Queen,” she says. 

            “Please come in and have a drink,’ Mrs. Queen replies, gesturing towards another doorway.

            Cooper leads the way and they enter the ballroom just as the music swells from the string quartet. The crowd is more diverse than she expected with teenaged girls running around giggling to themselves. A large decorated tree stands in front of the bay windows, lights sparkling and ribbons flowing. Bunches of holly line along the walls to add to the Christmas spirit.

            “Wow,” she mutters. “They really get into it.”

            Cooper merely sighs. “I’m going to need some eggnog.”

 

 

            Felicity excuses herself from Cooper as he chats with Steele about upcoming projects to get a drink. The warmth is getting to her and the small talk adds to her suffocation.

            “Enjoying yourself?” a voice says from close behind.

            She whirls around, nearly spilling her drink.

            “Careful,” Oliver Queen warns as he steadies her glass, his fingers brushing against hers.

            Felicity steps away from him.

            “What do you want?” she says.

            The man only crinkles his eyes and shrugs. “Nothing. Just wanted to make sure you’re having a good time at our party. We have to maintain our reputation as hosts.”

            “Right,” she says before she turns away.

            Queen speaks up again.

            “Actually, I’m surprised to see you here, spending your Saturday night with people like us. Last time we saw each other, you had lots to say about me and my family.”

            Felicity faces him again.

            “Look, if you’re still mad about your motorcycle –”

            Queen places his drink on a tray without taking his eyes off her as a server goes by.

            “I’m only curious. What are you doing here?” he asks.

            Felicity closes her eyes in relief when she feels a warm hand on her back.

            “She’s here with me as my date,” Cooper says as he steps forward from behind her. He lets go of her and asks, “Is there a problem?”

            Queen opens his mouth to answer but a familiar dark haired man interrupts.

            “Oliver!” he calls out from a few feet away. The man swerves through the crowd and joins them, a bit unsteady on his feet. “Let’s get out of here before my father – oh, hello there. Tommy Merlyn, and you are?”

            He gives Felicity a once over with an appreciative grin.

            “Come on, let’s go,” Queen says, shifting his eyes up with some degree of patience. He puts his arm around his friend’s shoulders to lead him away. His voice light, he says to them, “I’m sorry if I offended you. I hope you both have a nice night.”

            Felicity nods and the pair of friends walk away.  She takes in a breath and turns to Cooper who looks at her with an odd gaze.

            “What? Is it my hair again?” she asks, reaching up for her hair again.

            He takes a hold of her arm gently before she can touch her pin.

            “You all right?” he asks quietly.

            She smiles.

            “I’m fine. Come on, I think you need more eggnog.”

 

 

            The wood underneath creaks as she rests her heel on the top step of the long, winding staircase. Felicity pauses, willing the noise to stop, before she takes another step onto the wide landing. Rows of large portraits run alongside the walls of the dark hallway and she can’t help but stop to look at the one of the children - Oliver Queen standing behind his seated younger sister with his hand resting protectively on her shoulder.

            “According to the blueprints, the master bedroom should be the last one on the left,” Babs’ voice crackles in her ear.

            Felicity nods, forgetting that her friend can’t actually see her sign of acknowledgement, and hurries down the hall. The door handle catches slightly before it gives in to the weight of her hand.

            “Whoa,” she whispers, taking in the sight of silk sheets and elegant décor.

            “Your date thinks you’re in the bathroom, so unless you want him to think you’re taking an especially long dump, you better hurry,” Babs says.

            “Right, because that’s what I’m worried about,” she mutters back.

            But she does move quickly – opening drawers, putting items and trinkets back carefully into place.

            “There’s nothing here,” Felicity says, getting more frustrated as she opens more drawers.

            “Then place the bugs. Do they have ceiling lamps or fans? That’s a good place to put them.”

            Felicity looks up and nearly sighs out of relief when she sees a large wooden fan. Climbing up onto the raised bed, she reaches and sticks a bug on the very top of the fan where no one can see it. Once finished, she eyes the rest of the room.

            “What about plants? Are these waterproof?” she asks, walking over to the vase resting on a windowsill.

            “Do it and get out of there,” Babs orders.

            Felicity sticks it in and is about to leave when she comes across a writing table piled with paper. Underneath the clutter, something catches her eye. Carefully, she lifts the paper to reveal a small notebook.

            She opens it and her shoulders slump slightly in disappointment. The notebook is blank except for an odd graphic, but she grabs her phone to take a picture of the symbol.

            “Felicity, are you still in there?” Babs asks, her voice thin with anxiety.

            She puts everything back in its place and hurries out of the room.

            “I’m out, I’m out,” she whispers, closing the door behind her.

            Her throat closes when she comes face to face with Oliver Queen, who has now shed his suit jacket. He takes his thumb out from underneath his suspenders and crosses his arms.

            His sharp glare cuts right through her.

            “What were you doing in my parents’ room?”

 

 

            “I couldn’t find the bathroom,” she stammers, stepping away from the door.

            Queen frowns and arches his eyebrow.

            “Really, I thought the signs with the arrows were pretty self explanatory,” he says quietly, uncrossing his arms and plunging his hands into his pockets.

            Felicity brushes off her dress, forcing herself to take the time to slow her breathing down.

            “There were signs? It’s just like me to miss those. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to look in there – it’s just, I really need to find the bathroom. I’ve been holding it since I got here,” she says.

            He sighs, steps aside, and points towards the staircase.

            “Down the stairs and to your left.”

            “Thanks,” she mutters.

            As she moves past him, he speaks up once more.

            “Listen, uh….” he pauses for her name.

            She closes her eyes and opens them again as she faces him.

            “Felicity Smoak.”

            “Felicity,” he says softly, almost to himself. Then he shakes himself out of his reverie and says with a small smile, “I have a feeling we’ll be running into each other again. I hope that we can work out our differences.”

            She frowns at him.

            Before she can ask him any questions, he walks into another room and shuts the door.

 

 

            “Tell me you’re joking.”

            Cooper sighs. “It’s no joke. Oliver Queen will be our intern for the next six months. Looks like Robert’s finally ready to kick his ass into gear.”

            Felicity stops pacing and glares at him.

            “But why the IT department? Why would the CEO send his son down to the basement to serve coffee to geeks like us?”

            Cooper glares at her right back. “Did you just call me a geek?”

            “Cooper…” she pleads.

            He looks at her with tired eyes.

            “I don’t know. To teach him a lesson? I heard at the party that his romantic encounters blew up in his face. Something about him dating sisters or – Jesus, why am I talking about this? Look, I don’t know why. I don’t know what goes on in billionaire fathers’ heads, alright?”

            Felicity shakes her head and steps away to leave.

            “Is something going on between you and Oliver?”

            She stops.

            “No. I just crashed into his motorcycle awhile back and well, I guess he never got over it,” she says with a shrug.

            Cooper gives her a long, hard look.

            “Right,” he says and then he tosses a report onto his desk. “I need you to look over this, and I’m reading up on your report on that clerk right now. I’ll give it to Queen.”

            Felicity nods. “Okay.”

            “And Felicity, show him the ropes and let him deliver your goddamn coffee. I want you to at least try, but if there’s a problem, let me know. I’ll take it up with his father. Go, I told him to wait for you,” Cooper says.

            She nods again and walks out of his office. As soon as the door shuts behind her, Oliver Queen rises from a chair in the waiting area.

            He grins.

            “I thought I’d see you here.”

 

 

            The gun shakes in front of her face, and to her surprise, she doesn’t freeze in fear. Instead, her fingers wrap around the man’s bony wrist and easily snap it so that he releases the weapon with a howl. She kicks the gun away and then slams her knee into his gut.

            He falls to the ground and whimpers. When he raises his masked face from the floor, he clenches his jaw.

            “They deserve this. They deserve losing every penny. Only the rich use this bank and you know what they do? They suck the blood, sweat, and tears out of ordinary folks like us. My father died working like a dog for the likes of them, and they didn’t even _care_ ,” the man spits out.

            Felicity pauses and he uses that moment to lunge at her.

            She finishes the job with a hard blow to his face. He slumps over on the marbled floor, and she reaches down to tug his ski mask off. His face is worn, and he’s older than she expected.

            Babs grabs his arms and wraps him around with rope.

            “He’s right, you know. We’re stopping him from taking rich people’s money,” Felicity says of the man, as her friend ties him up and drags him over to the rest of the unconscious bank robbers.

            Babs glares at her and points at a security guard, lying on his back in a pool of blood.

            “We weren’t able to stop him from doing that, were we? But we stopped him from killing the rest. Murderers are murderers. Doesn’t matter if they’re rich or poor,” she says coldly.

            Felicity nods and walks over to the guard. She gently closes his unmoving eyes.

            “FREEZE! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!”

            Starling City’s SWAT team swarms in with their guns aimed at the pair. The women look at each other before shooting gas powered grappling hooks up into the ceiling. The rope whizzes them up and they curl in their bodies as the uniformed team shoots.

            When they make it out to safety, Felicity pants and leans against the wall.

            “We’re trying to _help_ them,” she rasps out.

            Babs chuckles.

            “You’re officially a vigilante now. Think of this as your christening.”

            Babs helps her up and they hop on her motorcycle. Felicity holds onto Batgirl tight as the bike zooms away from the scene.

            “You’ll definitely need a bike when I go back to Gotham. I’ll look into getting one for you,” Babs’ voice carries over the wind.

            At the mention of Gotham, Felicity bites her lip. She’s always known that Babs couldn’t stick around forever – that eventually her training would be complete. But the thought of her old college roommate leaving reminds her of the fact that she’ll be, once again, very alone.

 

 

            Her databases come up with nothing when she runs the image from Queen’s notebook. She frowns as she stares down at the lines that run parallel and perpendicular to each other. At first glance, it looks like a seal or a symbol, but she’s given up on that theory.

            Tired of looking at the same lines over and over again, she pushes the phone away in frustration and buries her head in her arms.

            “What are you doing here?” a soft voice says. “If you’re looking for Robert –”

            Felicity lifts her head and looks to her far right. The sound waves wiggle across her screen.

            The bugs.

            She had turned the volume down when she realized in horror that she was listening in on the Queens’ lovemaking. Besides that awful experience, she soon learned that other than their worries about their son being depressed about his ex-girlfriend and their daughter’s frequent visits to her headmaster’s office, the couple tended not to have discussions on other matters.

            So this peaks her interest.

            “I know. He’s not here. I need to talk to you.”

            “This is certainly not the place, Malcolm.”

            “He has it. My plan-”

            “My daughter is here – let’s go downstairs.”

            “Moira.”

            “Your plan is extreme. You’re talking about kil – do you really think he’s going to give it up? After all you’ve done?”

            “Convince him before _I_ have to.”

            “Hey, Mom! Celine wants to go the concert next – oh, hi, Mr. Merlyn. I didn’t know you were here.”

            “Thea. Sweetie, we were just on our way downstairs. Come, did you eat?”

            The waves smooth back down into a straight line, and Felicity scrambles to her computer to pull up information on Malcolm Merlyn.

 

 

            “People of Starling City have been calling the vigilante the Hood. It is unknown if the Hood is male or female, but the vigilante has been seen with the more recognizable Batgirl. So far, the pair has stopped muggings, bank robberies, and even saved a little girl from a fire. Here’s John Lentz with more on the story. John?”

            Felicity looks up at Babs.

            “We saved a girl from a fire?”

            She shrugs and turns a chair around backwards, straddles it so that she can wrap her arms around the wooden back. “It’s journalism at its best. Assumptions and embellishment.”

            Felicity leans back and turns off the news.

            “So the plot thickens. We have new characters in play. Malcolm Merlyn and Moira Queen,” Babs says after a moment of silence. “And your strange picture. You sure it isn’t just a pretty notebook with a weird design?”

            She throws her hands up in the air in defeat. “I don’t know. Maybe? If it is, then I just wasted so much of my time.”

            Babs smiles. “And we all know how much you hate wasting time.”

            Felicity doesn’t even bother shooting her a glare. “What’s their plan? If her daughter didn’t come in –”

            Batgirl clicks her tongue. “Don’t think about what ifs. Work with what you have. One. Whatever the plan is, at least three people are in on it. Papa Queen, Mama Queen, and Merlyn. Two. The plan is extreme. Three. Papa Queen isn’t happy with the plan. Four. Papa Queen has something Merlyn wants. Five. Merlyn sounds like a sleaze ball.”

            She glances at her and Batgirl gestures towards the sound waves.

            “Did you not hear that recording? Don’t tell me you didn’t get the heebie jeebies.”

            Felicity rubs her eyes.

            “It all comes down to this plan. What could it be?”

            Babs can only shrug.

 

 

            “Vanilla latte with soy for you,” Queen says, carefully balancing a carton full of cups while handing her one with a marked cardboard sleeve.

            She doesn’t take it and only looks at him.

            “You didn’t ask for soy, did you?” he says, closing his eyes in frustration.

            “Nope,” Felicity replies.

            “Any chance you’ll drink it?” he asks with some optimism.

            “I don’t do soy. Sorry.”

            Felicity swings her chair around to face her computer. She then feels a gaze on her and a sidelong glance lets her know that Cooper is watching the scene from the copy machine with a frown. She looks up at the ceiling and lets out a huff.

            “I’ll take it,” she says.

            Queen turns back around with a grin. “Really? Thank you. I’m pretty sure the barista hates me right now. I couldn’t keep track of my orders.”

            Her eyes, however, are on Cooper as he gives her a firm nod as he walks past Oliver back to his office. As soon as he’s gone, she takes the coffee from the intern, mutters her thanks, and swings her chair around again with her back towards Queen. Through the monitor, she can see Queen’s slight disappointment.

            Before he goes to serve the rest of the coffee, she speaks up almost against her will.

            “What did you do? How’d you manage to screw up so bad that you ended up down here, doing this?” she asks.

            His grin disappears and his eyes dim. She bites her lip.

            “Sorry, it’s none of my business. I shouldn’t –”

            He shakes his head.

            “It’s just – you’re the first one to ask. Most people just speculate behind my back.”

            She furrows her eyebrow. “Oh, you’re…welcome?”

            Queen lets out a small chuckle and it fades away. He looks at her, but she can tell that she’s not the one he sees in his thoughts. The thoughts pass from his eyes like a cloud and he blinks.

            “I hurt people. I realized I’ve been hurting everyone around me for so long,” he says and then gives her a small sad smile. “And my father thought this would be a good change of pace for me.”

            “Oh.”

            Queen glances down at his full hands. “I should probably give these out before they get cold.”

            She nods and he walks away.

 

 

            Cooper looks down at his screen from a standing position and barely acknowledges her as she enters the office. He rubs his temples and closes his eyes.

            “Queen doesn’t want to fire him yet. He wants us to keep watching and see what he does.”

            Felicity frowns. “The clerk?”

            He nods. “And he wants us to keep track of the bidders and the ones who actually buy from him. Which is, as much as I want to help him out, a bit out of our reach. He should go to the authorities –”

            “I can do that,” she interrupts.

            Cooper looks up at her.

            “Cooper, I know you know.”

            His face remains blank. “Know what?”

            “About my time at MIT.”

            He tilts his head. “Oh you mean, where you earned three degrees within four years?”

            Felicity shakes her head and smiles. “Whatever, Daniel. I can track them down for you.”

            Cooper sits down and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Corporate spies, corporate battles. Things can get dicey and I don’t want you caught in the crosshairs. I can’t do that to you –”

            She leans down and touches his desk.

            “My career. My choice.”

            Cooper stares at her for a long moment.

            “What?” she asks, straightening back up.

            He smiles.

            “Nothing. Okay, go ahead and track him. Keep me in the loop, I want to know everything.”

            Cooper stops her when she turns to leave. “And we have that conference to go to. Professional development. Queen wants Oliver to go too.”

            Felicity scrunches up her nose. “Queen needs professional development in IT?”

            Cooper looks out the window to the rest of the department and she follows his gaze to see Oliver entering addresses in the database in the smallest cubicle they have.

            “Honestly, I think he just needs professional development. Period.”

 

 

            The drive to the conference center is silent. The quiet makes Queen more noticeable as he taps his knees, which soon turns into a steady rhythm. Felicity glances at Cooper, who eyes him once in a while, trying to hide his grin.

            “Have you been to any professional development seminars before?” Cooper finally asks.

            Queen stops in mid tap and clears his throat. “Ah, not exactly.”

            Cooper nods towards the driver. “Thanks for letting us ride through town in style.”

            Queen glances over his shoulder at the driver and says sheepishly, “Sorry, my father insisted.”

            Cooper shakes his head and smiles at him. “No, it’s alright. I hate driving through Starling City traffic and her driving gives me motion sickness.”

            Felicity glares at him.

            “Hey, I get us there on time. You drive like at least 3 miles under the speed limit.”

            “What’s the point of getting to a destination if you’re –”

            “Dead. I know. I don’t drive that fast,” Felicity mutters.

            Queen glances at the two of them and a small grin spreads across his face.

            “You drive like a maniac,” Cooper retorts.

            A chuckle escapes Queen’s lips and they both look at him.

            “Maybe I should have driven,” he says.

            Cooper lets out a laugh. “Hell, no. I’ve seen the tabloids, Queen.”

            “It might actually be a good idea. His driving would make mine seem tame,” Felicity mutters.

            “Yeah, well –”

            Cooper never finishes. With a loud screech and a slam, a black SUV crashes into their car. Their bodies jerk but instinct takes over her and she throws her upper body over Cooper’s to shield him from some of the impact. When the rattling stops, she looks up in the eerie silence. Both Queen and Cooper are unconscious, but that’s not what worries her.

            Through the shattered window, she sees a man marching towards them. She unbuckles herself and Cooper, and stretches over his body to open the door on his side. Then with a heave, she pushes him out of the car just as the man almost tears the other car door off.

            He reaches for Queen, but she stops him and swings her legs forward to kick him in the face.

            “You bitch,” he snarls after cradling his head.

            She moves to kick him again, but he grabs her leg and tosses her out of the car. The ground hits her and all the air gets knocked out of her. She moans and lifts herself up to see the man dragging Queen out.

            Felicity charges at him and slams her shoulder into his torso, causing him to drop Queen. She attacks him methodically, organ by organ, like Babs taught her but gasps when the man sees an open spot and stabs her in the side.

            “Gotcha,” he rasps out, clearly in pain as well.

            Felicity slides to the ground as his accomplices join to help him off the ground and to drag Queen into their SUV. Quickly, she reaches down into her pockets and dials Babs on the phone.

            “Sixth and Anders-son. S-stabbed,” she mutters as she crawls over onto the other side to reach Cooper. She flings the phone away and puts her hand on her boss’ face.

            “D-Daniel,” she says, tapping his cheek.

            She ignores the blood dripping from his temple and lets out of a breath of relief when he opens his eyes. Then an intake of breath causes her side to burn and she places her hand over her wound.

            “Felicity?” he croaks. His cloudy eyes darken as a shadow falls on them.

            Before the man can shoot, she jerks her elbow behind her to catch him in the thighs. Then she turns and knocks her skull against his, gritting her teeth as the whole world seems to shake. When he drops his gun and falls to the ground, she kicks the sidearm away.

            “You’re going to be okay,” Felicity whispers to Cooper as her knees hit the cement.

            Her eyes close and the world turns black.  

 

 

            Her eyes flicker open and shut again.

            “Oh no you don’t. Come on, Felicity. Wake up,” a familiar voice pipes up beside her.

            A groan rises from her lips and she opens her eyes again. “Babs?”

            She glances down to see a hospital gown and starts to sit up when a sharp pain shoots through her side. The bandages scratch her below the gown and with a wince, she settles back down.

            “The cops got to you first,” Babs murmur.

            Her eyes widen. “The cops? Babs –”

            “Don’t worry. They just want to talk to you as a witness to Queen’s kidnapping. They’re waiting for you to wake up,” she explains, glancing over her shoulder.

            Felicity sees through the crack of the curtains that there are men in both uniform and plainclothes waiting in the hallway. She looks at Babs again.

            “Daniel, where is he?”

            Babs grins and steps aside to reveal a sleeping man in a chair. His hair falls over a slim strip of bandage on his forehead.

            “He only needed stitches. He barged in here and never left. Oh, and you sustained minor damages, well, besides the stabbing. They want to keep you overnight. How are you feeling?”

            Felicity groans. “Like I got stabbed.”

            She lifts the covers and drops her feet down on the floor. Babs puts her hand on her shoulder and frowns.

            “Uh, what are you doing?”

            “I have to find Queen,” she mutters.

            “Not now you don’t.”

            “Babs –”

            “You talk to the cops. You wait until visiting hours is over so _this_ guy finally leaves. _Then_ you abscond from the hospital to get Queen back. After that, you hop into bed in the morning and it’ll be as if you never left,” Babs crosses her arms.

            Felicity frowns at her logic.

            “The nurses will check on me throughout the night.”

            “I’ll take care of that. Now get back into bed like a good girl, and here,” she tosses Felicity an earbud. 

            She nods with appreciation and sticks it in her ear.

            “Ready to talk to them?” Babs asks.

            “I’m ready.”

            Cooper stirs from his sleep and groans. “Felicity?”

            Babs rolls her eyes. “Where did you find this guy?”

 

 

            Detective Quentin Lance frowns.

            “We got a look at the guy you knocked out. You did quite a number on him.”

            Felicity meets his steady gaze.

            “I took a few self-defense classes. Do you have him in custody? Did he talk?”

            “Not really. He was scared stiff. He’s terrified of the person he works for,” he replies somewhat gruffly.

            She tilts her head, hoping to convey some innocence.

            “Who does he work for?” she asks, her voice a bit higher than normal.

            “That’s what we’re trying to find out,” he says, flipping his notepad closed. He pauses and asks, “What’s your relationship with Oliver Queen?”

            She frowns. “Uh, he’s our intern? We were on our way to a seminar. Why?”

            The detective shrugs. “Just being thorough. He has quite the reputation. Bit of a womanizer.”

            Something in his eyes tells her that there’s more to the story, but she wants this conversation to be over.

            “Are we done, Detective Lance?”

            He smiles and clicks his pen.

            “Thank you for all of your help, Miss Smoak.”

 

 

            Felicity hops onto a motorcycle and smiles.

            “Thanks for the bike,” she murmurs as she turns on the engine.

            “Consider it a Hanukkah gift. I tracked their SUV down. They’re in a warehouse by the docks. 459 Faulk Avenue,” Babs says through the earbud.

            The bike accelerates and wind blows over her hood as she whips by the passing cars. “Got it.”

            “They’re asking for $21 million in ransom. Shit, they must be filthy rich…you’re really going to go save Robert Queen’s son?”

            Felicity swallows as she turns onto Faulk.

            “I need information, Babs. This could bring me closer to the truth.”

            She hears the crack of gum and rolls her eyes.

            “Uh huh. So it’s not because of his insanely good looks?”

            “Babs, be helpful. Any cameras on the warehouse?”  

            “Yeah, you’ve got at least five guys guarding two entrances. Can’t tell how many are inside though.”

            “Okay, I’m here. I’m going in.”

            Felicity gets off her bike and takes cover behind a wall when two men come out from around the corner of the abandoned building.

            “Try not to get yourself killed.”

            She looks up to see a window at the very top and sticks her fingers in the crevices of the worn down bricks. Loose dirt crumble off as she grits her teeth and starts climbing, ignoring the pain that washes over each time she inches up. When she finally gets to the window, she punches the glass and brushes it away so that she can squeeze through the opening. Luckily, a landing lies a few feet below and quietly as she can, Felicity drops down, hanging onto the flimsy railing.

            Down below, she sees Queen tied up and gagged in the middle of the empty warehouse. The young man glares up at his kidnappers and coughs when he gets punched in the stomach by a towering man. Felicity recognizes him as the one who stabbed her. He pulls the towel away from Queen’s mouth.

            “What do you want?” he rasps out, his eyes flashing with anger.

            The man grins.

            “Just a couple million. Twenty one to be exact.”

            Queen shakes his head. “I don’t believe you. There’s more to this than just money. Who do you work for?”

            “I don’t care what you believe, you spoiled brat.”

            Felicity jumps down behind one of the men and wraps her arm around his neck. The rest bring their guns up, their eyes wide, glancing at her and back at their leader. With her other hand, she presses down on her voice scrambler.

            “You shoot, this one dies.”

            The leader grins, cuts through the ropes with his knife, and drags Queen up by the shirt collar. He places his knife at Queen’s throat.

            “I could say the same thing,” he says. “So you’re the Hood. Funny, I thought you’d be bigger.”

            Felicity knocks the man in her arms unconscious and one man moves to pull the trigger. She shoves the dead weight onto the shooter and nicks the gun out of his hand. She then shoots him in the knees as he falls to the ground.

            “You say he’s worth twenty one million. That’s a whole lot of money. You wouldn’t risk losing that money for _these_ guys, now would you?” she says with a grin as she brings the rest of the men down with quick blows so that only she, the man, and Queen are left standing.

            She raises the gun and aims for his head.

            “Let him go,” she says, her voice low and cold.

            Queen looks at her as he tugs at the arm around his neck. She meets his eyes. He stops struggling and his eyes narrow as Felicity gives him an almost imperceptible nod.  She can almost hear him counting to three in his mind and she shoots the man in the shoulder just as Queen strikes him backwards with his elbow.  The knife falls away with a clang, and she rushes to grab it.

            “Get out of here. North exit,” she yells over her shoulder.

            Queen pauses.

            “Go!”

            When she sees him sprint out, Felicity sticks the knife in front of the man’s neck.

            “I think he’s on to you. He’s right, isn’t he? Who do you work for?”

            “Go to hell,” he spits.

            Felicity bites her lip before stabbing the man in his thigh. She misjudges the amount of force she has to use and with her gloved hand the knife goes in awkwardly. She curses to herself when she realizes it isn’t deep enough to cause much pain.

            The man laughs weakly.

            “First time?”

            She scowls and twists the knife, watching as the man lifts his body up from the floor in pain.

            “Who do you work for?” Nothing. She twists further. “WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?”

            “M-”

            An arrow hits the man in the side of his skull. She gasps and backs away from him, the bloodied knife still in in his thigh. Looking up, all she sees is a dark coat flapping away, disappearing within the shadows.

            “What?” she whispers before she runs across the warehouse towards the north exit.

            She sees Queen in the hands of one the guards and she grabs him after throwing another punch.  Shoving him towards the bike, she kicks his attacker one last time.

            “Get on,” she orders, her voice still deep from the scrambler.

            He doesn’t argue and holds onto her waist as they drive off into the night. Once his breathing slows down to a normal rate, he speaks.

            “Thank you,” he says loudly over the wind.

            Felicity doesn’t reply.

            “Nice bike.”

            Silence.

            “People call you the Hood, you know. They think you’re a danger to society.”

            She can’t help herself. “And you?”

            She can hear the slight mirth in his voice as he says, “I think you just saved my life.”

            Felicity fights her grin and her bike stops abruptly in front of the police station. Queen gets down a little breathlessly.

            “Just tell them what you saw,” she says, putting her foot back on the pedal.

            “Thank you. Again,” he says, backing up as the bike roars back to life.

            She nods and drives away.

 

 

            Felicity clamors up the hospital wall and climbs in through her open window, wincing in pain. Carefully she drops onto the floor but freezes when she hears someone speak.

            “So you’re the Hood,” Cooper says from a chair beside her empty bed.

            Her hood drops over her eyes even further as she rises.

            “They let me in because I forgot my phone in your room. Don’t worry I didn’t tell anyone that you weren’t in here. A bit weird, though, how they conveniently forgot to check on you.”

            She turns to go out the window again, her throat constricting, but the movement only affects her wound and she holds onto the windowsill with a sharp gasp. She hears him stand up.

            “I was worried. So I waited in here and turned on the news. They kept talking about the Hood, and for some reason, I thought of you – and the way you fought him off in the crash. But it couldn’t be. Not Felicity.”

            His steps get closer until his hand is on her shoulder. Gently, he turns her around and then with some amount of dread, his fingers reach out to lift her hood.

            “Wait,” she rasps out.

            He stops and shuts his eyes. His forehead so close to hers, she can barely breathe and she brings her hand back to grip the windowsill again.

            But there’s no escape.

            “Tell me it isn’t you,” he whispers.

            She turns off the scrambler.

            “Daniel,” Felicity says.

            Cooper steps away from her, his eyes glassy and red. Then he walks out the door.

 

 

            Two days later, Felicity steps out of her apartment into the cold only to be met by a black car. The back seat window rolls down and Oliver Queen grins up at her.

            “Need a ride to work?” he asks.

            She walks down the steps of her brownstone as Queen gets out of the car to usher her in.

            “But –”

            He puts his hand on her arm.

            “Please,” he says, his voice worn.

            Too exhausted to argue, she slides in the car and looks at Queen through the window as he shuts the door behind her. She shifts in her seat while he enters through the other door.  A bouquet of flowers rests in between them and she arches her eyebrow.

            He clears his throat. “I went to the hospital but you were already discharged. I wanted to apologize.”

            She shakes her head. “You don’t have to apologize. It wasn’t your fault.”

            “Even so … I’m so sorry. I’m glad you’re okay,” he says softly.

            Felicity bites her bottom lip and fiddles with her thumbs. “I heard the news. Are you all right?”

            “I’m fine. I got lucky,” he says, his face turning grim, but his expression quickly brightens. “I’m glad you’re coming back to work. Cooper’s been miserable without you.”

            At the mention of Cooper, Felicity looks away.

            “It doesn’t help that I have to bring my new friend into work everyday. Cooper wasn’t too happy about that,” he says.

            Felicity glances at him. He tugs at his coat lapels to straighten them out.

            “Felicity, meet John Diggle. He goes by Diggle or Dig. Wait, can she call you that, Dig?” he asks the driver.

            John Diggle smiles through the rearview mirror.

            “She can call me whatever she likes,” he says. His tone isn’t the most sincere, and Felicity gets the feeling that Queen has been slowly grating on his nerves.

            “Dig’s my bodyguard. My parents insist that he goes with me everywhere,” Oliver smiles, which doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

            “Hello, John,” she says, feeling a bit sorry for the man.

            “Nice to meet you, ma’am,” he replies with a little more warmth.

            She smiles.

            “You can call me Felicity.”

            She feels Queen’s eyes on her and she turns to meet his gaze. An odd expression passes over his face as the corners of his lips turn up just slightly.

            “What?”

            “You called him John,” he says quietly.

            Felicity swallows as he looks out his window and she realizes that she has never called him by his given name, by any name really, since that day in his father’s office. Even then, she called him Mr. Queen.

            When Queen opens the door for her, once they arrive in front of QC, she steps out and says, “Thanks, Oliver.”

            His face lights up and she walks away, shaking her head, before he can say anything else.

 

 

            “Cooper.”

            He types away on his laptop and takes a sip of coffee.

            “You’re not even going to look at me?” she asks.

            His fingers stop and he looks up.

            “I’m glad you’re okay,” he says.

            “Daniel.”

            He stands up, grabs his coat from his coat hook, and puts it on.

            “I have a lunch meeting and will be out for the rest of the day. Take it easy today. Don’t stay too late,” he says.

            Without another word, he leaves her alone in his office.

 

 

            Babs sighs as Felicity works out on the salmon ladder.

            “It’s only been a week. Maybe you shouldn’t be doing this yet,” she calls out to be heard over the clanging. “Maybe you should, I don’t know, let the wound heal?”

            Felicity only grunts in reply as she climbs higher.

            “Seriously. You and Batman,” Babs mutters.

            Eventually, she finishes her workout and joins Babs by the computers. Batgirl’s visits to Starling City haven’t been as frequent so she appreciates some of the humor her friend injects throughout her stay. Not that Felicity would ever admit it, of course.

            “I’ve been looking into Merlyn Global Group, and nothing seems out of the ordinary. Their finances look great, no top secret projects. I don’t know. Everything seems clean.”

            Felicity throws her a sharp glance. “There’s no way you could’ve gotten that information without access to their servers.”

            Babs grins. “Meet Jane, your Big Belly Burger delivery gal.”

            “The only thing odd at QC is a clerk in the Applied Sciences Division. He sold a couple of formulas and some prints of a Markhov prototype. It’s supposed to measure seismic activities. I don’t know who bought it. I’ve been trying to track the bidders down, but I don’t think they’re communicating online.”

            Babs chews on her thumbnail as she thinks.

            “Maybe it’s time to have a chat with the clerk.”

            Felicity sighs and sits in her chair.

            “I can’t. Cooper knows about me. He knows about the clerk. He’ll definitely find out.” 

            Babs nods and swings around in her chair. Felicity straightens up.

            “Don’t you think it’s weird that Queen hasn’t fired him yet? Do you think he’s known about this all along?”

            Batgirl stands up and places her hand on Felicity’s shoulder.

            “I’m sorry but I have to go back to Gotham for something. Things…aren’t good. But don’t make any big moves on Queen, okay? Wait until I come back. Something about this makes me nervous.”

            Felicity opens her mouth to protest – that she could do this on her own, that Babs had taught her well – but she nods instead.

            “You know your boss is following you, right?”

            She sighs and rubs her eyes. “I know.”

            “Is he a threat?”

            “I don’t know.”

            “Felicity.”

            “I know. Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out. Go to Gotham.”

            “Okay. Bye, girl.”

            “See you, and be careful.”  

 

 

            Her restlessness fades as she leaps from rooftop to rooftop along the lakefront with the full moon lighting the way. All the pieces of information she was able to mine the last few weeks blur into the background and Felicity takes a moment to breathe in the cold air. Seagulls caw, finding trash that the citizens of Starling City abandoned below rickety benches.

            She stops to look over the still waters.

            The resting place of Eddie. Another life lost, another soul taken away from her.

            “Laurel’s in love with you even if she hates you right now,” a voice rises up along the breeze.

            Felicity lowers herself. She recognizes that voice.

            She peers over the edge of the building and sure enough, Tommy Merlyn and Oliver Queen are standing by the lake with a six-pack of beer at their feet.

            “Stop. It’s over,” Oliver says, staring out on the horizon.

            “C’mon, this isn’t like you. So you messed up, we always do, but things turn out okay.”

            Oliver stays silent and Merlyn claps his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

            “Let’s go to Canopy, drink some shots, and find some girls. We’ll get it out of your system and then you can go back to Laurel –”

            “Tommy! I’m not going back to Laurel. You didn’t see how – how devastated she was. I cheated on her with Sara, for God’s sake. You’re right. I messed up, I’ve _been_ messing up for the last ten years and all I’ve been doing is hurt the people around me,” Oliver lets out a pent up breath and rubs his eyes.

            Merlyn sighs. “Ollie –”

            Oliver looks at him sharply. “I hurt you too.”

            Felicity can see Merlyn’s breath stop for a second.

            Oliver’s eyes soften.

            “You think I don’t know? That I don’t see how you look at her? You’ve been in love with her since you laid eyes on her.”

            Merlyn closes his mouth. Then he shakes his head.

            “I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, Ollie. Maybe it’s the whole kidnapping thing that’s messing with your head. If you need some space, man, that’s fine. I can give it to you.”

            Merlyn turns on his feet and Oliver sighs as he shuts his eyes.

            “Tommy –”

            But his friend drives away in his car. Oliver rubs his face and lets out a grunt of frustration as he kicks an empty beer can. The noise startles her and she shifts to leave, causing some dirt to sprinkle off the roof.

            “Hello? Is anyone there?”

            She could hide within the shadows and he would never know of her presence. But she doesn’t. Instead, she rises to her feet, her hood rustling in the wind.

            “It’s you.”

            Felicity wonders if he’s going to accuse her of spying or worse, stalking, but he doesn’t. He just looks back out at the lake.

            “Want a beer?” he asks, with a slight smirk. His question doesn’t seem to need an answer and he opens a new can. He lifts it towards her. “Cheers.”

            She says nothing and only watches as he takes a sip. She should go, she should go back to the lair, get things ready so that when Babs comes –

            “It must be nice. Having two lives. If you screw up in one, you have a fresh start in the other.”

            She thinks of Cooper.

            “It doesn’t work that way,” she murmurs, voice disguised.

            “Why do you do it?” he asks, raising his eyes.

            Felicity clenches her fists as an image of his father floats up.

            “Justice.” Her deep voice gives weight to the one word uttered and Oliver brings his can down.  

            This is wrong. She needs to go and so she does. When she gets back to the lair, she jerks off her hood and starts to clean her new collection of knives. Her thoughts run still again, and she is at peace.

 

 

            “Get your epinephrine!” a man shouts as he enters her lair with Batgirl lying unconscious in his arms. 

            “No,” she whispers when she sees an arrow sticking out of the woman’s chest as the man sets her down on the table.

            “Hurry!” he demands and she scrambles to get her medical chest. She takes out the syringe filled with clear liquid and hands it to him.

            He uncaps it and plunges the needle into Batgirl. Then he carefully snaps the shaft of the arrow. Babs’ chest rises up in pain. Holding his breath, he slowly pulls the rest of the arrow out and presses his palm against the gaping wound.

            Cursing under his breath, he says, “Some of the tip is still in there. I need to remove it surgically. Do you have the tools?”

            She nods, and thanks her lucky stars that the medical chest was the first thing Babs had her prepare when she started this crazy journey. She hands him the anesthesia and then one by one, gives him the tools he needs.

            Once he finishes suturing and cuts the last wire, his entire body slackens as the tension runs out of him. Gently and with great affection, he rests his fingertips on her neck to check her pulse.

            “I think she’s going to be okay.”

            Felicity looks down at her friend’s pale face. She looks anything but okay.

            “You’re Nightwing,” she says.

            “And you’re the distraction,” he says sharply. “She shouldn’t have been in Starling City. She should have been in Gotham where she belongs, where there aren’t lunatics running around with arrows.”

            Felicity glances up at him.

            “You’re right. Gotham just has the Joker.”

            His glare falters and he runs his hand through his hair.

            “She was on her way back to Starling. She was just outside of your city when it happened. She called me for help. Her voice –” he stops, unable to say more.

            Felicity steps away from the table.

            “Take her back to Gotham,” she says.

            Something in her voice makes him look up as she grabs her leather jacket.

            “Where are you going?” he asks.

            She raises her hood and her eyes glint with danger.

            “It’s time to get some answers.”

 

 

            She stands on top of the Queen Consolidated building and even through the heavy leather hood Felicity can hear the sharp breeze. The city beneath her feet breathes in with excitement, lights traveling through its veins as it welcomes the night’s embrace. Something about the sight makes her want to sit and watch the clouds blow over the canvas of rooftops.

            Instead, she spreads out her arms and jumps.

            She crashes into the glass, and the hood and her gloves protect her from the shards. Before she even rises from the ground, she throws a knife and it lands a centimeter away from Robert Queen’s hand, which hovers above his security button.

            “Don’t move,” she commands, her voice deep.

            Queen snatches his hand away and sits back down in his chair.

            “So you’re here.”

            He closes his eyes and puts his hands together.

            Her breath hitches but she keeps her second knife in position in case he makes any sudden movements. His eyes shoot open again and she clenches the hilt.

            “How can I help you, Miss Smoak?” he asks.

            She takes a step back but steadies her throwing arm.

            “H-how?” she says.

            His eyes drop and he gives her a small, sad smile. For a second, the turning of his lips reminds her of Oliver and she lowers her knife.

            “You didn’t change your name, but I guess your foster parents never officially adopted you,” he says softly.

            The ground seems to shift and she lurches forward to slam her hands down on his desk.

            “The fuck are you saying?” she hisses. “You knew Karen? Brian?”

            He shakes his head. “No, I knew your father. Jeremy Smoak. He was the start of everything. He came up with the formulas. Markhov only enhanced them, fiddled with them. But your father – he was the true genius.”

            “You talk too slow,” she snarls, threatening him with her knife again.

            “We were friends. He and I used to work together in Merlyn Global Group in the Applied Sciences Division. That’s where your father came up with the formulas. When you put the formulas together, you get a weapon, a weapon that can cause an artificial earthquake. He intended it to be used as a measuring tool – so that people could warn cities of oncoming seismic activity. Then we found out that Malcolm Merlyn wanted revenge for his dead wife and destroy the Glades – kill thousands of people – by using your father’s invention.”

            “Keep talking,” she says, a headache blooming from behind her eyes.

            “Jeremy refused to comply and Malcolm threatened his family. So he left you with your mother to keep you all from danger, and he disappeared without a trace. But it didn’t work. Merlyn ordered a hit on you and your brother. To make an example out of Jeremy. To show me that I needed to stay loyal to him if I wanted to keep my children.”

            Felicity drops her knife and the blade gets stuck in his desk.

            “I eventually started my own corporation, or I should say, Merlyn _let_ me start my own. And I – I kept track of you. Your brother – I used to come over for dinner sometimes. You were both so little… Then I saw you here at QC, and I just knew.”

            “Knew what?” Felicity growls.

            “That you were coming to get revenge. I’ve seen the same look in Malcolm’s eyes.”

            She backs away, unsteady on her feet.

            “This is crazy,” she whispers.

            “I kept my eye on you. Followed you at some point. That’s a risky thing, having your base of operations on your enemy’s property,” Queen says, putting his hands down on his arm rests.

            “So we _are_ enemies?” Felicity says.

            He shakes his head, again with that sad smile. She wants to sear it off but she stands still instead.

            “You will never be my enemy, Felicity. You’re my friend’s kid. But you made me yours.”

            She gains enough courage to step in closer to the man again.

            “If what you say is true, what happened to the formulas? They’re in _your_ Applied Sciences Division with a hacker who’s selling them to the highest bidder.”

            Robert raises his tired grey eyes.

            “Merlyn thought your father destroyed his work, but he entrusted it to me when he disappeared. For years I held onto it, watched as Merlyn desperately thought of other ways to destroy the Glades, coming up with nothing. But he planted someone within my corporation and he found it. Who did you think the highest bidder was, Felicity? Malcolm Merlyn is the richest man in this city.”

            “But you didn’t fire him. Cooper told you and you didn’t fire him.”

            “I have my own man in that division. He fed the hacker the wrong formulas, the wrong design. I should have destroyed it – I know I should have, but it gave me leverage over Malcolm. For once, I had power over him after all those years.”

            Robert closes his eyes.

            “I am sorry, Felicity. I should have destroyed it.”

            Something about the way he drops his head makes her stomach whirl.

            “What did you do?” she says, her voice tight.

            “The night Oliver was kidnapped – I gave them to Merlyn. He has the prototype now.”       

            “I rescued him! I _rescued_ your son – you didn’t have to!” she grabs him by his collar and shakes him.

            “He was never going to stop. He would go after my wife…my Thea. He would go after my little girl. I was weak. I’m sorry,” Queen whispers.

            “You son of a bitch,” she hisses, but her grip loosens. Something within her understands and she hates it, she hates herself for understanding.

            “Let him go.”

            Felicity closes her eyes as she hears the safety of a gun click from behind her.

            “Daniel…” she whispers.

            “I mean it. Let him go,” he warns.

            She hears him close in on her, but she can also hear the gun shaking.

            “Don’t make me shoot you,” his voice cracks.

            Felicity lets go of Robert Queen and turns around. He’s only about a foot away from her and she reaches out to touch his face.

            “You’re not going to shoot me,” she whispers.

            “Felicity, this is wrong. Don’t hurt him,” he rasps. “We can figure this out.”

            A tear rolls down her face as she puts her hand over his and slowly brings the gun down.

            “A gun doesn’t suit you, Daniel,” she smiles.

            Then she sprints towards the broken window and leaps out into the night sky. She shoots a grappling hook towards another building and it latches. Just as she shifts her body for momentum, Robert Queen’s office explodes, the debris and the force throwing her body around in the air like a rag doll.

            Her lungs seize up as she falls, crashing to the ground, the rope burning her hands. Her ears ring as she stands up and looks up at the fire lit building.

            “No,” she whispers.

            A smaller explosion bursts a few more windows and she raises her arms to steady herself. She was just talking to him. She had touched him. Touched his face. She smiled at him, less than forty seconds ago.

            A sob erupts from her throat and Felicity screams.

            “DANIEL!”


	3. The End, Pt. 1

            “Smoak, you sure keep a guy on his toes,” Daniel says, clutching the edge of the concrete perimeter of the highest rooftop in Starling City. “If this is your idea of a first date –”

            Felicity chuckles.

            “How many times do I have to tell you? You’re perfectly safe.”

            Daniel peers down, scowling at his legs dangling in the air.

            “Safe? We’re about a thousand feet up,” he mutters.

            She nudges him, causing him to yelp. “Christ, Felicity, don’t _do_ that.” She rolls her eyes, and points up to the bleeding sky.

            “You’re looking the wrong way, Cooper,” she says. “That sunset. We can almost touch it. How beautiful is that?”

            Daniel lifts his gaze to see what she’s pointing at, but a shadow settles on his face. He shakes his head and grins at Felicity.

            “I’ll have to take your word for it,” he says.  

            His tone of voice strikes her odd and for some reason, a flash of annoyance surges within her.

            “What are you talking about? It’s right there. It’s the _sun_. How can you not see it?”

            Felicity reaches for his hand, panic rising, and his fingers clasp around hers. She tears her gaze away from the sky and stares at her companion as his lips graze against her knuckles.

            He looks up at her and smiles.

            “Wake up, Felicity,” he replies.

            His hand turns searing hot and she lets go with a gasp.

            Daniel’s face contorts into a twisted shape as he chokes. As flesh strips away, revealing his cheekbones, Felicity screams and loses her balance. She falls backwards, her hands clawing the air, but she can only stare up towards the rooftop as Daniel crumbles into a heap of ash.

            When her body finally meets the ground, Felicity wakes.

 

 

            She wakes up to honking in the street, followed by a string of curses. Her heavy curtains, still drawn, keep the sun from revealing the sprawling mess of her room. With a moan, she shifts her body around so that she’s looking up at the ceiling with her arm draped across her forehead.

            “Fuck,” Felicity whispers, her eyes snapping shut.

            A teardrop manages to escape and skids down until she feels it on her neck. With an angry swipe of her arm, the small spot of wetness dries and Felicity sits up, which she regrets immediately.

            “Fuck,” she says again, feeling the thousand needles in her brain.

            A low buzz from within her covers startles her and she flings her blanket around until she finds her smartphone nestled within the creases. A picture of Babs floats on the screen and Felicity closes her eyes again.

            Running her hand through her oily and tangled hair, she presses ignore and stumbles out of her bedroom to make her way into the kitchen.  Her big toe taps an empty carton of Chinese food and it scatters across her floor until it stops, now on its side. She opens the fridge and grabs the half empty bottle of wine, uncorking it open with ease.

            She sips the wine, tilting the bottle up and then wipes her lips with her bare arm.

            Her phone buzzes.

            This time, it beeps at the end, and Felicity glares at it before the curiosity gets the better of her.

            _I know you’re there. Pick up the phone._

Felicity puts the phone back down on the counter and takes another sip of wine.

            Beep.

            _Stop ignoring me. I’m starting to take this personally._

Felicity grabs the remote and turns on the TV. A large man with a bad suntan smiles and gestures at a set of pearl earrings. “Surprise her with these gorgeous earrings. It doesn’t have to be for a special occasion. Show her that each day with her is special.”

            She nearly gags and switches the channel.

            “Oliver Queen stepped into his new role as CEO of Queen Consolidated this morning and he delivered a short speech to his employees detailing his plan to keep the corporation on track after the tragic death of his father and former CEO, Robert Queen.”

            Felicity stares at the screen as the camera tracks the young man in his best business suit stepping out of a black car with his bodyguard keeping the reporters at bay.

            Beep.

            _Do you have ten bucks? I’m short and I think the cabbie’s planning on murdering me._

Her eyes widen and a new text comes in.

            _Pretty please?_

            Felicity fumbles around for her wallet. When she finds it on the floor next to the couch, she grabs a few bills and walks out the door to find Babs rummaging through her purse.

            “Look, my friend lives right there! I swear I’m not going anywhere. Let me get her and she’ll pay the –”

            Felicity rushes out and thrusts the handful of bills in the cab driver’s face.

            “Sorry. Here you go.”

            With another bout of cursing, the cab driver finds his way back into the vehicle and drives away leaving the two women together on the sidewalk. Felicity crosses her arms remembering that she has no bra on and places one bare foot on top of the other. Babs makes no effort to hide her slow assessment of her blonde friend before throwing her arms around her.

            Felicity draws in a sharp breath but receives the embrace with a pat on Babs’ back.

            “You look good,” she says, after a moment’s hesitation. “Are you – are you all better?”

            Babs pulls away and purses her lips.

            “You didn’t even visit,” she replies voice running slightly cool.

            The shame twists in her gut and Felicity opens her mouth.

            “I – I know. I’m s –”

            “I called you. Multiple times. Left you voicemail and texts. Not once did you answer,” Babs interrupts, keeping her steely gaze. “I don’t deserve that – especially not from you.”

            “Babs –” Felicity starts.

            Her friend’s face softens and she says, “I’m sorry about Cooper.”

            Felicity swallows and nods.

            “I’m sorry. For everything.”

 

 

            Felicity draws the terry cloth bathrobe closed and twists her hair up in a knob with a towel. The fog escapes as she opens the bathroom door and she breathes in cool air. When she steps out into her living room, she finds the apartment mostly clean.

            “What –”

            Babs shrugs, her long legs pretzeled up beneath her on the couch, taking a sip of Diet Coke through a straw. She scrolls down on her laptop without looking up at her.

            “You’re a mess.”

            Felicity says nothing but joins her on the couch. Her towel unravels and her wet hair falls on her shoulders. She takes a strand and curls it around her finger, enjoying the smell of rose petals.

            “I know,” she murmurs.

            “I sorted your mail. It’s on the counter. You have a few packages,” Babs says, taking another sip of Coke. Felicity nods, not even glancing at her kitchen counter so Babs continues, “I threw out your wine, too.”

            Felicity’s face turns hot. “What? Why?”

            Babs doesn’t bother to answer and closes the laptop before shifting to face Felicity.

            “Come to Gotham. I’m sure you can find a job there. Wayne Enterprises has an IT department. Or if you want to try something different, you can try the Applied Sciences Division.”

            Felicity tilts her head.

            “Wayne Enterprises?”

            “Or another company. You graduated from MIT, you can get a job literally anywhere.”

            “But why Wayne Enterprises specifically? You don’t work there,” Felicity says slowly, chewing the inside of her cheek. An odd idea about Gotham starts niggling at her but Babs interrupts her train of thought with a frustrated breath.

            “Look, forget it. I’m just saying that you’re not stuck here. You’re not tied to this place.  Come with me and get a fresh start.”

            “I can’t.”

            Babs stares at her for a second and leans back into the couch. She puts the heel of her hand on her forehead. With closed eyes, she mumbles, “Why do I even bother?”

            For the first time in a long while, Felicity smiles.

            “Because you’re worried about me.”

            Babs glares at her but sighs. “At least you know it.”

            Felicity turns on the TV again to see another newsreel about Oliver Queen. She stares at him travelling through the crowd, and wonders if a person can age so much within a few short weeks.  

            “I hate that you’re alone,” Babs says, her eyes also following Oliver’s movement onscreen.

            Felicity doesn’t answer and only changes the channel.

           

 

            The yellow caution tape flaps around in the breeze as the pedestrians stream past. Felicity pulls her jacket close as she looks up at the tall building, feeling a little chill when she realizes the rest of the crowd pass without glancing at the destruction above as if the zoned off area is just an inconvenience in their morning commute. Few pockets of reporters stand by, but at this point, the story has lost its pull. Now it’s time for Queen Consolidated employees to go back to work and for the construction workers to rebuild.

            One pedestrian bumps into her and puts his hand up in apology. He gapes, however, when he slows down enough to see her face.

            “Smoak, what are you doing here? I thought you quit,” Alec says, shifting his briefcase.

            Felicity steps back from him and runs her hand through her hair, wishing she wasn’t just wearing sneakers and jeans.

            “I did. I did – I just – ”

            Alec nods and she doesn’t feel the need to finish.

            “I wish you didn’t. Everything’s gone to shit now that Daniel isn’t – well. We could use you. Cooper always thought you were the best of the bunch. Hell, you ran circles around me with coding.”

            “I don’t know about that. Anyway, it’s good to see you,” Felicity says.

            Her former colleague smiles.

            “Same. I should probably get going, but listen, good luck with whatever you do.”

            He pats her on the shoulder before walking through the revolving doors of QC. Felicity sucks in a breath and crosses her arms before ducking her head. She doesn’t feel the pang of guilt she expected to feel when finally faced with the explosion site. All she feels is the pounding headache behind her eyes and she turns on her feet to walk the other way.

 

 

            The wind chimes clatter against each other as she pushes the door open. The bodega owner barely glances at her before returning to his magazine propped open on the counter next to the cash register.

            “The soups are on sale, miss,” he says, flipping the page. 

            “Um, okay. Thanks,” Felicity says, making her way to the soup aisle.

            The fluorescent lights flicker, causing a split second of darkness that makes her uneasy. She hooks the handle of the shopping basket over her arm and starts pulling cans off the shelves.  

            Babs was right. She _is_ a mess, and while making a bowl of soup is a far cry from putting her life back together, at least it requires more participation on her part than takeout. She moves through the aisle, perusing the labels, feeling more _normal_ than she’s ever felt in a long time.

            The wind chimes flutter away once more.

            “A pack of cigarettes, please.”

            Felicity finds her way back to the counter, the basket heavier than before. When she stands behind the other customer to wait in line, the first thing she notices are his wide shoulders. The sheer size of the man immediately puts her on edge and even more so when she examines his stance. He clearly knows how to do some damage and if what she’s learned from Babs is true, she guesses that he’s had some army experience.

            She shuts her eyes.

            She opens them again and breathes. Groceries. She’s here for groceries.

            The man is about to pull out his wallet when the door bursts open. Two men in ski masks step in with guns out in front of them.

            “PUT YOUR HANDS UP.”

            “Well, shit,” she mutters.

            Army man glances at her.

            “You, open the register! You two! On the floor!”

            Taking her cue from her fellow customer, Felicity obeys their command and slowly gets down on the ground while the owner scrambles to open the register, sweat pouring out from his hair.

            One of the robbers spits as his thumb skims over the bills.

            “This is it? You better not be hiding money from us, you son of a bitch.”

            “I promise, I’m not. Business is slow,” the owner starts.

            The masked man grabs him by the cuff and sticks the gun in the side of his head, causing the older man to breathe in harshly.

            “Oh yeah? How bout if I blow your brains out? Is business still too slow?”

            Felicity’s jaw tightens, her hands automatically curling into fists.

            “Hey man, relax,” says Army man. Felicity eyes him as he gets up on his feet, his dark hands out to show them he means no harm. The second robber swings his gun to aim at him.

            “Get the fuck down!”

            “He doesn’t have any more money.  So why don’t you take what you have and go? We’ll even wait a bit before we call the police. Give you guys a head start,” he says, his deep voice calm.

            “Like hell we will!” growls the owner from behind the register. His hands shake and a few bills fall to the floor.

            Army man closes his eyes in frustration. At that moment, the second robber grabs Felicity by the arm and drags her up. She feels the cool metal on her temple, and oddly enough, it helps with the headache.

            “I’m gonna kill her if you don’t get us more money. Get down, big guy,” he roars in her ear, spittle getting on her cheek.

            “God,” she mutters.

            “Shut up,” he snarls, clutching her arm tighter.

            “You picked the wrong girl,” Felicity murmurs.

            Before the robber can speak, she wraps her fingers around the gun and snaps his wrist. With the twist of her body, she brings her elbow out to strike him in the eye before using the butt of the gun to knock him unconscious. With natural flow, she uses both hands to aim the gun at the other robber only to find that Army man already has him in a hold, gun kicked out of the way. The robber opens his mouth like a fish until he passes out and slumps over on the ground.

            Felicity lowers the gun.

            She and Army man look at each other for a full three seconds before the bodega owner slams the register shut.

            “You two. Get out of here.”

            Army man steps over the unconscious bodies and pauses.

            “Can I still get my cigarettes?” he asks.

            The owner grabs two packs and slaps them into his hand. “It’s on me.”

            He smiles and nods his thanks before opening the door for Felicity.

            “After you, ma’am.”

            Felicity steps out of the bodega, taking in small steady breaths.

            “You in the army?” he asks once they’re both back out in the streets. He crosses his arms. “Special forces? Navy, what?”

            “Self-defense class,” Felicity replies.

            He scuffs his shoe on the sidewalk. “You know, my sister-in-law takes self-defense classes.”

            “Good for her.”

            She turns to leave.

            “She sure as hell can’t do what you just did in there.”

            Felicity stops.

            “I recognize you. You used to work with Oliver Queen,” he says.

            She pivots and tilts her head. It takes a second, but then she bites her bottom lip. “John. Or Dig. Sorry, I forget which one you go by.”

            He shrugs.

            “I don’t know if you’re still working for Oliver, but if you are, would you mind – I mean, could you not mention that you saw me?” Felicity twists the ends of her jacket as she watches him tap his pack of cigarettes on his palm.

            “I’m not on duty right now. Whatever I’m up to in my personal time is none of his business,” John replies, unwrapping a pack. He pulls out a cigarette and lights it. When the metal cap of his lighter falls back, he puts it in his pocket, breathes in deep before dropping the cigarette on the sidewalk.

            He presses the toe of his shoe into the cigarette until the light goes out.

            “Thank you,” she says, staring down at the wisps of smoke from the end of the crushed cigarette. “What’s the point?”

            He looks up. “What do you mean?”

            “Why buy cigarettes if you’re not going to smoke them? Not that it’s a bad thing. Smoking sucks, but what’s the point?” 

            John grins. Under the warm glow of the streetlight, he doesn’t seem as imposing. He lifts his pack and shakes it once.

            “I quit six years ago. On tough days though, I light one and put it out right away. It calms me.”

            “Oh,” Felicity says. She turns to leave - ready to put as much distance she can between them – but stops, yet again. She looks over her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

            John frowns. “For what?”

            “Sorry that you’re having a tough day,” she says.

            He looks at her carefully. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

            She finally walks away.

            “CIA?” John calls out. “You look CIA.” 

            A small grin spreads across her face.

            “Just an IT girl,” she murmurs, her voice too low for anyone else to hear.

            Her grin disappears. “Well, I used to be.”

 

 

            The hum of the generator comes to life as the panels of overhead lights turn on one by one. She walks up to a lone laptop hooked up to multiple screens and gently runs her fingers over the keyboard. With a shaky breath, Felicity sinks into the chair, noting how familiar the act feels.

            She’s amazed that no one from QC has rushed in, checking the small and insignificant foundry, just in case, throughout the whole investigation. Her throat closes as Robert Queen’s face flashes before her.

            _That’s a risky thing, having your base of operations on your enemy’s property._

            “Fuck you,” she mutters.

            She’s hit with the guilt of cursing a dead man. Felicity turns on the laptop and as the keys light up, she feels the itch in her fingertips. Once the computer is revved, she enters the QC database, no, _her_ database. Her lips twitch up as she remembers Cooper scolding her about not keeping him in the loop and changing the entire online system without permission. By the end of the quarter, however, there was such a significant decrease in IT problems that Cooper had taken her out for a drink.

            Felicity draws in a breath and lifts her hands away from the keyboard.

            _Tell me it isn’t you._

            If it hadn’t been for her – if she hadn’t gone on this _quest_ to take down Robert Queen –

            “I’m sorry, Daniel,” she whispers.

            She almost expects a response but the walls remain silent.

            A box flashes up on the screen.

            “What the – ”

            _m has real mkhv dsgns. meet @ docks, pier 4, tmrw midnight._

            Her fingers fly, every hit to each key sounding like a raindrop hitting a glass pane window, but whoever it is – he, or she, is good. Her traces only ping back to her from multiple locations leaving her with nothing. All she can do is reply.

            _Who are you?_

The cursor blinks for what seems like forever and she wonders if she spooked him. Then another box pops up – _come alone._ Felicity tries chasing him again to no avail and eventually closes the laptop. Her eyelids grow heavy and she buries her head in her arms.

            _I should have destroyed it._

“Yeah, no kidding.” Felicity growls into her arms, but she understands Queen’s cowardice no matter how bitter the taste it leaves in her mouth.

            A thought crosses and she sits up, almost knocking the laptop off the table. She opens it again and quickly pulls up the directory from the Applied Sciences Division. After scrolling through the photos, she stops at the one of a weathered man with sharp eyes behind metal-rimmed glasses.

            “Gotcha,” she murmurs. “William Tockman.”

            Most of the information in the directory matches with what Cooper gave her in his file minus the multiple pages of screenshots of his hacking activity.

            _He planted someone within my corporation._

            “So you sold the prototype to Merlyn and now you want to talk to me? Do you even know who I am?”

            The questions float in the air, and she lets out a long sigh, blowing the hair out of her eyes. She stretches out to grab her phone and after a moment’s hesitation, her thumbs flit about on the smaller screen, typing out a message.

            _Babs, I’m talking to myself again. Help, please?_

 

 

             Felicity paces in front of the large doors. She stops, takes another look at the entrance to the Queen mansion, and shakes her head.

             “This was a bad idea,” she mutters, turning to leave.

             She takes a few steps and halts, running both hands through her hair. Every inch of her body tenses as a groan makes a way out of her throat. When the door opens, Felicity jumps and twists around to face her greeter.

             “You looked so torn - I thought I’d make the decision easier for you,” Oliver says with a small grin, his arms crossed as he leans against the doorway.

            “Qu – Oliver,” she stammers.

            “Felicity,” he nods. “Why don’t you come in?”

            With an uneasy glance at him, Felicity enters his home. Devoid of any holiday lights, the mansion seems hollow and creaky with aching joints. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear as Oliver leads her to the living room, and her mouth opens in awe of the sophisticated décor. The focus of the room is the large stone fireplace with a broad mantel, which holds up framed family photos. Her gaze is drawn above the pictures where a large wooden bow is displayed in a glass case.

            “My father loved archery,” Oliver says, stepping in besides her, looking up at the bow as well.

            “Oh, I didn’t know,” she says, cringing slightly at her words.

            He looks at her and smiles, his eyes dimmed.

            “He would take me and teach me a few things when I was younger. I actually wasn’t all that bad,” he replies.

            Felicity bites her lip.

            “I’m sorry for your loss,” she says.

            Oliver nods and then puts a hand on her arm. “I’m sorry too. About Daniel. I know you two were…close.”

           Felicity chews the inside of her cheek and opens her mouth to speak when she hears the floor creak and her neck whips around to see Oliver’s bodyguard in the doorway of the living room.

            “I don’t know if you remember but this is –”

            “John, yes, I remember,” she says.

            “Ma’am,” John nods.

            He fades into his surroundings allowing his employer and her to speak and betrays no sign that they had worked together to stop a hold up. However, she sees his heightened awareness in the way he keeps his back completely straight. Oliver frowns and clears his throat.

            “So what’s going on, Felicity?”

            Felicity glances down at the floor.

            “Before Daniel died, he was looking into something. Actually, I was the one who found out about it and I brought it to him. So I guess I was the one looking into it, technically – ”

            “Looking into what?”

            She rubs her eyes, shoving her glasses up before it settles back on her nose again.

            “There’s a clerk in the Applied Sciences Division. He’s been hacking into our system and selling company designs and prototypes to the highest bidder. I caught wind of this and told Cooper. He then told your father –” She eyes him, waiting for a reaction, but she gets none so she continues. “Your father ordered him to leave it alone. That he was going to take care of it.”

            Oliver frowns.

            “Why would he do that?”

            She licks her lips. “I – I don’t know. We were wondering about that too.”

            “Do you know who it is?” he asks, stepping forward.

            Felicity nods.

            “Yes, but – Oliver, it’s complicated.”

            “Who is it?” he says in a low voice.

            She reaches into her purse and pulls out a manila envelope. He undoes the clip and starts flipping through the pages.

            “William Tockman. Never heard of him,” he says, peering at the file.

            “Well, you wouldn’t have. He’s a low level clerk in a division that’s even sadder than the IT department, but he’s a hacker and that’s how he’s been able to go above his clearance.”

            Oliver glances at her. “IT wasn’t that bad.”

            His off-hand remark startles her a bit, and she meets his gaze. He quickly looks down and his eyebrows furrow as he looks through the screenshots.

            “So what did he sell?”

            “Markhov designs and the prototype.”

            “What’s that?”

            “It causes earthquakes.”

            This draws the attention of both Oliver and his bodyguard and she steps back.

            “What do you mean?” Oliver asks slowly.

            She shrugs, unsure how to put it any more simply. “I mean, the prototype can cause an artificial earthquake. It was originally meant to predict earthquakes, but then I guess someone got a bit creative.”

            “How big of an earthquake?” John asks.

            Oliver and Felicity both turn to him but his gaze remains steady. Oliver doesn’t object to his interruption and looks to Felicity again to answer his bodyguard’s question.

            “It could level a whole city,” she says quietly.

            “Fuck,” Oliver hisses, running his hand over his cropped hair. “Why are you only telling me this now, Felicity?”

            “I was going to but I – I haven’t been myself these past few weeks,” she replies, raising her chin in hopes of covering up any vulnerability. “And I’m telling you this now, because Tockman contacted me.”

            Oliver jerks his eyes away from the file.

            “What are you talking about?”

            “I guess he realized that I’ve been tracing him. He messaged me saying that he wants to meet tomorrow night.”

            “Why?”

            Felicity shakes her head. “I don’t know.”

            Oliver sinks down into the couch and closes his eyes. “I’m coming with you.”

            “No,” Felicity says before John can even open his mouth. “He told me to come alone.”

            Oliver lets out a hollow chuckle. “Well, that’s not happening.”

            She looks down at him. “I can take care of myself.”

            Oliver rises from the couch and glares at her, his face only a few inches away from hers. “I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s a big hole in a building where _my_ father and your Daniel were blasted into oblivion. So don’t tell me you can take care of yourself. I’m coming with you – and don’t you even fucking start, Diggle –” Oliver says, putting his hand up in the air when he sees John move away from the wall out of the corner of his eye.

            “Sir, I’m paid to keep you alive and I like getting my paycheck every two weeks,” John drawls.

            “You’re not going to talk me out of this, Dig,” Oliver says.

            “No one can talk you of out of anything, sir. I’ve learned that knocking you out is the only thing that works with you.”

            “Oh yeah. Why didn’t my mother fire you again?” Oliver asks, almost wincing at a memory.

            “It was her idea, sir. I’m coming with you. Where’s the meeting place?”

            Felicity crosses her arms. “I appreciate your budding bromance, but forget it. You’re not coming. I only told you about this because I thought as CEO you deserved to know what’s going on in QC. But this is the one lead I have to Cooper’s death and I’m not going to let you two blow it –”

            “My father died too, and he’s left me to protect his legacy. Now you come into my home with this information, and you tell me I can’t _do_ anything about it?”

            They glower at each other. John slides up his cuff to check the time on his wristwatch.

            Felicity blinks, her eyes getting dry.

            “Fine. But we’re doing this my way,” she says, pulling her hair up into a ponytail. “Do you have a laptop? I’ll show you the maps of the docks. That’s where he wants to meet.”

 

 

            “You’re hiding something from him,” John says as he walks her to her Mini Cooper. “And I’m not just talking about your kickass moves. There’s more to this than what you just told him.”

            Felicity opens her door. “I didn’t realize you were so loyal to him.”

            John doesn’t even blink. “He’s alright for a rich kid.”

            Felicity moves to slide into her seat.

            “But that’s all he is. A scared rich kid with responsibilities he never had before. He’s prone to rash decisions that might blow up in his face.”

            She runs her finger over her steering wheel.

            “Poor choice of words there, Dig,” she murmurs.

            “Sorry,” he says, clearly not sorry at all.

            “What are you trying to say?” she asks.

            “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but it’s my job to keep him safe.”

            “Got it,” she replies.

            “Good.” John gently closes the door for her.

            She drives away and mutters, “Crap.”

 

 

            “I told you to sleep on it, not march to Queen and tell him everything!” her friend says through the phone. Felicity can almost see her gritted teeth.

            “I didn’t tell him everything, Babs.”

            “What happens when everything goes to shit? You can’t hood up in front of Queen and his bodyguard.”

            Felicity sighs. “I wouldn’t hood up anyway. I’m – I’m done with that.”

            Babs snorts. “Right, which is exactly why you decided to hack into the QC database in the comfort of your lair.”

            “It’s not a – forget it. He deserves to know why his father died, and what’s happening in his company. If I can get him some closure -”

            “Why do you need to give him closure? This wasn’t your fault.”

            Felicity looks outside of her car window to see the broken building a few hundred feet away.

            “Felicity. Merlyn wanted to take out Queen long before you came along. Robert Queen’s death is not on you.”

            Felicity swallows.  “We don’t know that it’s Merlyn.”

            “We don’t know that it isn’t. Look, I’m coming. You need some backup. If Batgirl shows up in the middle of the night while you’re still in your civilian clothing, at least they have less reason to think you’re the Hood.”

            She rolls her eyes.

            “Sure, why not? Everyone else is inviting themselves to the party anyway.”

            “Love you too.”

            Felicity opens her mouth before Babs hangs up. “Daniel’s death is on me.”

            Her friend stays silent for a few seconds.

            “But not Robert Queen’s. Don’t make the weight heavier than it already is. You don’t owe Queen anything.”

 

 

            Oliver taps on his armrest until Felicity glares over her shoulder from the front passenger seat.

            “Sorry,” he murmurs, “This is my first stakeout.”

            “Look, it’s going to be fine. At midnight, you and John stay in the car and keep watch. I’ll signal you if something goes wrong.”

            “How?” John asks.

            “I’ll call you,” she responds, waving her phone slightly in the air. “If you two see something, then John, you have my permission to rescue me.”

            “ _Hey, I thought that was my job. I’m hurt,”_ Babs says through coms. 

            Felicity ignores the voice in her ear and turns to Oliver.

            “You stay in the car no matter what,” she says.

            “What? Why does _he_ get to –”

            “Cause I have training, Mr. Queen.”

            John shifts in his seat to face the front but catches her eye along the way.

            “ _I’ll have my eyes on you throughout._ ”

            She coughs.

            “ _I am_ not _going to be babysitting Queen, Felicity. Or his hunk of a bodyguard.”_

            Felicity clears her throat with some force.

            _“Fine, but if you get yourself killed, know that it’s your own damn fault.”_

She grins at her friend’s words.

            “Uh, you okay?” John asks, observing her.

            “Yup, just fine,” she replies, her voice high and clear. “It’s a minute to midnight. I’m gonna go. You –”

            “Wait for your signal. Got it,” he interrupts, holding his phone up.

            “Right,” she steps out and then stoops to look at both men. “Please don’t do anything stupid.”

            Oliver only replies with, “Be careful.”

            She wonders how his eyes can be greener in the dark, and nods. “You too.”

 

 

            The breeze ruffles her hair and she crosses her arms as she paces on the pier. The sound of waves lapping reminds her of Eddie and she realizes that she will always connect Lake Starling with her childhood friend.

            “If you could see me now,” she whispers, forgetting that Babs can hear her.

            Thankfully, Babs says nothing and she can hear her typing on a laptop on the other end.

            _“You’ve got incoming.”_

“You’re supposed to be watching –”

            _“The boys, I know. But I thought you might want a heads up that the man approaching is most definitely_ not _Tockman.”_

            “What?” Felicity says sharply, looking up at the vantage point where Babs is hidden.

            _“Tockman’s supposed to be a scruffy mid-aged man, right? Well, your guy is getting out of the car right now and he is – whoa.”_

            “What?” she hisses.

            _“Well, he’s definitely not scruffy. Okay, he’s coming your way.”_

Felicity turns to keep her back to the lake and lets out a small breath.  She betrays no expression as a tall, clean cut man in a gray hoodie and jeans strides toward her.

            “You’re Felicity Smoak?” he says, taking her in from head to toe. He chuckles nervously and runs his fingers through his hair. “You’re different than I imagined.”

            She narrows her eyes. “Who are you?”

            The man stretches out his hand. “Sorry! I guess it’s only polite. Ray Palmer at your service.”

            Felicity looks down at his hand and looks back up with a cold stare. He shifts uncomfortably and takes back his hand.

            “I’m the mole. Wait, no, that’s not right. Double agent? Triple agent? The late Mr. Queen hired me to spy on Tockman in the Applied Sciences Division. Anyway, Mr. Queen told me that if anything happened to him, I should get in touch with you. Except you quit right after he died, so I couldn’t really introduce myself through the QC database, especially since you never got on it until, well, yesterday. So then I tried your personal laptop but boy, do you have incredibly secure firewalls –”

            “You hacked me?” she asks, her voice low and dangerous, slipping into the Hood.

            He immediately put both hands up and steps back.

            “Tried to hack you, but I just wanted to talk.”

            _“This guy has some serious social issues,”_ Babs chimes in with the crack of her gum.

“A phone call would’ve been just fine.”  

            Palmer sighs and rubs his eyes. “Tockman’s dead. He died this morning. You probably didn’t see it on the news, but his death is just starting to light up the internet. He’s a pretty well known hacker, the only reason I took on this job. And well, I – I have a feeling I might be next, so I wanted to take precautions.”

            “Why would you be next?”

            “You really don’t know? I mean, he said you’d be fuzzy on the details but – ”

            “Palmer! Why would you be next?” she says again with gritted teeth.

            His eyes grow dark. “Merlyn’s planning to wipe out the city and then rebuild it, his way. But think about it, the only other big name in Starling that can stand in his way is – ”

            “Queen. Queen Consolidated.”

            Palmer nods. “He wants to take over QC. With Robert Queen out, it should be easy enough, but he can’t be traced back to the earthquake. So he got rid of Tockman, and I’m not sure if he knows that Queen hired me to screw with Tockman. But I’ve seen enough movies to know that the bad guy always knows.”

            “What about Oliver Queen?”

            “What about him?”

            “Yeah, he killed Robert Queen, but Oliver’s taken over.”

            Palmer shrugs. “Well, I think Merlyn’s hoping he’ll die in the earthquake, but if he survives – well, Oliver Queen is not the greatest business man in the world, is he? Plus, he’s friends with his son.”

            “He thinks Oliver will just hand him the keys when the pressure gets too high.”

            Palmer nods again. Felicity closes her eyes and paces with her hand on her forehead.

            “Okay, but if Merlyn wants to keep his image clean, why the bomb? Why not kill Queen in a more subtle way?” she asks.

            “He tried. If you call sniping subtle. I guess it _is_ more subtle than blowing someone up.”

            Felicity swallows and turns to Palmer again. “Merlyn hired a sniper?”

            “Yeah, but I don’t know what happened to him. He disappeared.”

            The waves of the lake seem to splash louder. _Eddie._

            She clears her throat. “But still, a bomb –”

            Palmer’s eyes widen. “Wow, you really don’t watch the news. This just broke today.” He fumbles with his back pocket and pulls out his phone.

            She leans in to see the clip.

            “Police were able to pull surveillance footage from a security camera from a building across Queen Consolidated. As you can see, the Hood looks up at QC just moments after the explosion and then flees from the scene,” a reporter states.

            “He’s pinning it all on the Hood,” Palmer says, putting his phone back in his pocket. “She’s been starting to get some support from the public, so I guess, he’s nipping it in the bud.”

            _“Holy shit.”_

“Oh. Right.” Felicity manages to say.

            _“Why that sneaky, conniving son of a bitch. How the hell did I miss this? I swear I watched the news this morn – “_

            “Ahem,” Felicity coughs. “So what do you want me to do? Why contact me?”

            Ray stares at her.  He takes a step back.

            “He told me to come to you. He said you’d have the missing piece of the prototype –”

            “Wait, what? What missing piece?” she interrupts.

            The man’s eyes widen and he runs his hand through his hair. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me right now.”

            Felicity frowns and crosses her arms. “What missing piece, Palmer?”

            “There’s a key code. That’s the only way to access the prototype. Without it, it’s just a fancy, expensive, heap of metal. Mr. Queen told me he gave it to you.”

            Felicity stares at him. “He didn’t give me anything.”

            Palmer sucks in a breath of exasperation and stares at Felicity while speaking slowly. “Think back. Try to remember. Did he ever _say_ anything or –”

            “I don’t have the key code,” she growls. “And I’d appreciate it if you stop treating me like an idio-”

            Babs gasps into her ear. “ _Wait, wait. Your packages. You got a package in the mail, remember? Maybe he posted it to you before he died.”_

Palmer peers more closely at Felicity as she shuts her mouth. “Hello?”

            She swallows and shifts. “I haven’t checked my mail since … it might be at my apartment.”

            He lets out a laugh and rubs his face. “Well, shit. Maybe you should, I don’t know, go home and che – _hey!_ ”

            Palmer scowls as Felicity claps her hand to his mouth.

            “Shut up,” she hisses as she stares over her shoulder into the darkness. She then whispers, “Babs.”

            “ _Oh fuck, the boys –”_

Even before Babs finishes her sentence, she can hear the sounds of a scuffle a few hundred feet away where John and Oliver were stationed. Felicity sprints towards them, leaving Palmer to gape at her retreating back. She finds Oliver in a chokehold, his legs jutting out in an awkward attempt to kick his attacker. John slams one man into the car and knocks another in the head with his own. Then with teeth bared, Dig grabs onto Oliver’s attacker and tosses him while Oliver gasps for breath.

            Oliver stumbles over his feet and nearly bumps into another man in a dark mask. Felicity dashes in between them but Oliver sticks his arm out in front of her to shield her from the oncoming attack.

            “Felicity, run,” he pants.

            She bites her lip, “Oliver, be careful.”

            “ _Go_ ,” Oliver demands.

            “ _I’m coming, I’m coming,”_ Babs responds. “ _I’ll grab him._ ”

            A split second later, Batgirl glides down in front of them and blocks a blow meant for Oliver. Babs attacks and defends with precision, her limbs whipping around in the air. Felicity grins at her friend’s handiwork before she drags Oliver out of the fight.

            “Oliver, we have to go!” Felicity says, grabbing him by the arm.

            “Dig –” he says, his eyes wide with horror. “No!”

            That’s when she sees the glint of metal arching towards John’s neck. Hissing a curse under her breath, she throws her entire body against his attacker, wrapping her hand around the man’s wrist to twist the knife out of position. She glances over her shoulder and sees Babs riding away with Oliver on her bike. Her eyes cloud over as she turns back to face her enemy.

            She slams her knee into the man’s stomach and strikes his neck before pressing down against his windpipe.  With a feeble gasp, he lets go of the knife and starts clawing at her hand.

            Felicity sticks her face in his and snarls, “Do you work for Merlyn?”

            He squirms underneath her and she barely registers John knocking the two other men out. She punches him twice in the face, her knuckles crunching with pain.

            “When is he going to attack? Where’s the prototype?”

            He says nothing, his face turning pale.

            She punches him once more with gritted teeth. “He’s going to fail. This city will stand, and there’s nothing you dirty sons of bitches can do –”

            Felicity stops when she sees him grin. She eases up on him as his lips flutter open.

            “M-merlyn will have h-his Camelot,” he spits out.

            “What?” she says. Her eyes widen as the man convulses, spit foaming at the mouth. “Hey. No. No. What did you do?”

            The man doesn’t respond as his eyes go blank and he lets out one last breath. Felicity stares down at him, her hands still shaking his body. When she finally lets go, she scrambles back and stands, her breaths evening out.

            She turns to see John staring at her with two men unconscious at his feet.

            “You’re the Hood,” he says, his eyes narrowing.

            Felicity looks down at her bloody knuckles. She could come up with an excuse, cover it up, because John has no evidence other than the fact she’s dangerous in a fight. But when she looks back into his eyes, she knows there’s no use denying it. John Diggle is a man who trusts his gut, his instincts, and his gut at this very moment is screaming that she, Felicity Smoak, his boss’ IT girl, is the Hood.

           “John.”

           They both startle at the sound of sirens and Felicity grabs his arm as they make their way to their car. Dig slams his car door shut and nods when Felicity meets his eyes. She presses down on the accelerator and Dig jerks as the car squeals away.

           “Where did she take Oliver?” John asks.

           “Probably back to his mansion. He’s safe.”

           “And Tockman?”

           Felicity hisses, reminded of Palmer. “It wasn’t him.”

           “Who was it?”

           “It’s a long story. Shit, I _left_ him… Bab – Batgirl. You there?”

_“Yeah. I dropped off Queen at his place. He’s pissed I didn’t grab you two.”_

           “Palmer. What happened to Palmer?”

_“He ran for it. He made it to his car. I think he’s safe for now.”_

           “Can you –”

_“Yeah, I’ll watch over him tonight.”_

           “Okay… Thank you,” Felicity says.

           “ _You know it’s no problem._ _Signing out._ ”

           “What the hell is going on?” John asks. “Who’s Palmer? And Merlyn? As in Merlyn Global Group?”

           Felicity eyes him wearily. “John … can I trust you?”

           The large man crosses his arms and commands, “Talk.”

           Felicity realizes she’s a woman who trusts her gut as well. And so, she talks.

 

 

            “So Robert Queen knew that there was a mole in Applied Sciences, this – this Tockman fellow,” Dig says as Felicity scrambles to unlock her front door.

            “Yeah,” she replies, shoving the door open. 

            “So he hires this other guy, Ron, Roy –” he continues, only an inch behind her as she makes a beeline towards her kitchen counter.

            “Ray Palmer,” she supplies, flipping over the packages.

            “Palmer to feed fake secrets to Merlyn, but this Palmer guy showed up tonight to tell you about –”

            “The key code,” Felicity breathes out when she finds a small brown box with no return address label on it.

            “Which is where – what are you doing?” he asks, staring over her shoulder as she rips apart the box to reveal a slim black stick.

            “This is it,” she whispers. “Queen really mailed it.”

            “This is what?” John mutters.

            “ _Seriously,_ Queen _?_ You could have said something,” she grinds out while looking up at the ceiling.

            “Are you talking to Oliver’s dead father right now?” John frowns.

            Felicity whirls around and he steps back to give her room.

            “This is the key code.”

            John blinks. “ _You_ have the key code.”

            She nods and starts to pace.

            “You have to go to the police. Tell them everything –”

            “You don’t think Merlyn will have someone on the force, Dig? Come on. This is Starling City.”

            He crosses his arms and stares at her. “So what are you going to do? Hide it under your pillow forever and hope Merlyn never finds it? If he’s as powerful as you think he is, he’s going to figure it out and he’ll come after you.”

            “John –”

            He steps forward. “Listen, I don’t know why you decided to go around in black leather and started calling yourself the Hood. But this isn’t some mugger you stop on the street. You can’t stop a man like Merlyn all on your own.”

            Felicity swallows. “I’m not alone.”

            Dig arches an eyebrow. “Batgirl? So it’s just you two against the world? Yeah, let me know how that works out.”

            Felicity glares at him. “What do you want me to do, Dig? What do you want from me?”

            John shakes his head, his eyes dull. “You’re in way over your head, Hood.”

            Felicity watches him as he makes his way to the door but frowns when he stops. He looks over his shoulder and asks, “What about Oliver?”

            “What about him?”  

            “He deserves to know why his father was killed.”

            She bites her lip. “I know.”

            John glances at her once more before leaving. When she hears the door shut, Felicity flings herself on the couch and holds the stick up to the light. She brings it back down to her chest and she closes her eyes.

 

 

            The moon lights her path to the Queen mansion. Even with her aching muscles, she still flies from rooftop to rooftop until she’s forced to make her way through the forest that surrounds the Queen estate.

            Felicity climbs up the stone walls and lands on one of the balconies. She peeks in through the glass door to see Oliver sleeping in his bed.

            _This is a new level of creep, Felicity._

            She puts a hand on the door and closes her eyes. Shaking her head, Felicity steps away and hops onto the railing of the balcony to leave.

            “Leaving so soon?”

            It takes all of Babs’ training to stay still and not fall off the balcony in a startle. She hears the slight breeze through her hood and looks downward so that he can’t see her face.

            “Why are you here?” Oliver asks, taking another step out into the balcony. “Did you come to gloat? Or did you come out of guilt?”

            “I didn’t kill your father,” she says, wishing her voice wasn’t scrambled. Somehow, the computerized voice doesn’t convey the sincerity she feels but still she says, “I’m sorry.”

            Oliver stays silent. In a t-shirt and sweats and with his bedhead, he looks like a normal guy but his eyes say otherwise as they bore through Felicity’s hood.

            “You were there,” he says finally.

            “Yes.”

            “Did you see him?” he asks.

            This time, she stays silent. Of course he wants to know what his father was doing, thinking, saying in his final moments. It’s only normal to want that but she can’t give it to him.

            “What were you doing there? Why was he – why did someone plant a bomb in his office? We were attacked tonight. Did you know that? My bodyguard and my f-colleague were almost killed – and you weren’t even there. You sent your _friend_ to do the work for you,” he says, his voice hitching as if he’s struggling to breathe.

            She steps forward.

            “Hey –”

            But he rears back, his eyes blazing, “ _What the fuck is going on?_ Just tell me.”

            Oliver steadies his breathing before spitting out, “You keep showing up in my life and I want to know why.”

            The Hood gets back up on the railing.

            “Don’t trust Malcolm Merlyn. He’s behind everything,” she manages to say.

            She doesn’t stay long enough to watch the anger turn into confusion and disappears into the night.

 

 

            _Thump. Thump. Thump._

            Felicity sits up in bed and grabs the slim knife lying underneath her pillow.

            “FELICITY. Wake up! Open the door!” A muffled voice shouts from her front stoop.

            “What the – ” She pulls a robe over her tank and shorts and checks her clock. “It’s not even six –”

            “FELICITY! If you don’t open this door soon, Dig _will_ kick it down so you better – seriously? You’re supposed to be my bodyguard. Jesus, fine. _I’ll_ do it. I’m breaking down your door in five, four, three, two - ”

            “What is the matter with you?” Felicity says, opening the door in a huff, her eyebrows knitted together.

            Oliver beams, his perfect teeth gleaming with the sunlight. He shoves a small brown bag into her hands.

            “Good morning, here’s a bagel for you. Dig’s got the coffee,” he says pleasantly.

            She stares at him and barely even notices when his shoulder pushes past hers so that he can make his way into her apartment. Her eyes slowly travel to John, who stands there nonchalantly with a tray of three cups of coffee in his hands. He lifts them up and shrugs with one shoulder.

            “Coffee?” he asks with a barely noticeable grin.

            “Yes, please,” she murmurs as she’s left out on the stoop alone with a bag and coffee. She finally kicks herself awake and follows John into her own apartment. “Hey! What is going on?”

            “This will do. This will do nicely,” Oliver says, nodding in approval as he scans his surroundings.

            “Oliver, what –”

            “By the way, thanks for calling me last night and letting me know that you didn’t, oh you know, get shot or anything. Really, you eased my mind,” Oliver interrupts as he sits down on her white couch.

            She blinks. “You’re wel – I mean, sorry. I got sidetracked. I assumed Dig…”

            Felicity looks to John and he nods. “I did. He’s just being a baby.”

            Oliver clicks his tongue. “I needed reassurance that my friends were safe. Is that so bad?”

            Felicity blinks again. “Friends?”

            John advises, “Drink your coffee.”

            So she does. She opens the bag and hands out bagels to both men before she sinks her teeth into one herself.

            “Mm, wow, that’s amazing – so why are you here?” Felicity mumbles as she inhales the bagel.

            “This is going to be headquarters,” Oliver replies, standing up and gesturing towards her living room area.

            Felicity glances at John and he only shrugs once more.

            “The three of us are going to bring him down.”

            “Bring who down?” John asks.

            The light shines on him as Oliver turns towards them with a dangerous smirk. A chill falls over Felicity and she shivers.

            “Malcolm Merlyn.”


End file.
